2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This paper centers on two case studies, spanning 2020-2022, based on a partnership between a mid-western private United States (US) university (ranked in top 10 in Mid-west) and a southern private Indian university (ranked in top 35 in India). The goal of the collaboration was multi-faceted and designed as a traditional mentoring (US) to mentee (India) relationship,

In the first case, a Fulbright scholarship was awarded to the host university in the US for a faculty member from India to spend six months teaching and collaborating with US counterparts. However, this was unsuccessful and resulted in the visiting faculty returning after just a few weeks. In the second case a shift from traditional mentoring to multi-dimensional and collaborative learning through co teaching a course using remote participation benefited both faculty and ultimately the students. This led to several subsequent teaching and scholarship collaborations.

This paper will look through the lens of the Collaborative Responsive Education Mentoring Model, proposed as relevant for some Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and less research-intensive universities to compare the two cases between the same institutions during the same time period with very different outcomes, to illustrate some best practices as well as some pitfalls that could be avoided in the future.

The key takeaways can be summarized as valuing cultural differences because ignoring them can have disastrous results, establishing trust by building personal relationships between collaborators, being patient and determined in working through setbacks, and aligning collaborative activities with existing motivations on both the institutional as well as individual level.