Expanding Student International Awareness Through Short-Term Study Abroad Courses With Substantial Engineering Technical Content

The efficacy of Compact International Experience (CIE) courses is assessed in this study. These courses were developed with the aim to raise student international awareness while retaining substantial engineering technical content. The courses were motivated by a strong student desire for engineering international studies as well as a drive by the home institution for internationalization of the curriculum. The experiences gained from delivering two distinct three-semester-unit engineering elective courses in three-week time frames in France and Australia are discussed. While the two courses, Topics in Fluid Mechanics and Advanced Electronic Circuit Design, focused on their technical content, the desire for student understanding of the cultural environment and the impact of engineering solutions from a global and societal viewpoint were strong driving factors for each. Assessment validates the hypothesis that CIE courses can successfully deliver substantial engineering technical content while providing an enriching international experience to students.