2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The Process of Developing an International Engineering Education Collaboration in the United States and United Kingdom

Presented at International Division (INTL) Poster Session

This paper describes the collaborative inquiry process of developing an international collaboration between a Northeastern U.S. institution and a U.K. institution to share evidence-based practices, develop collaborations, share resources, and develop new tools and approaches to support engineering workforce development. The rapidly growing field of engineering education research (EER) is recognized as a crucial resource for research to advance engineering workforce development during this period of increasingly complex, global engineering problems. Despite this potential, EER currently comprises of many strong (but largely unconnected) international networks, and there is no unified platform from which large-scale engineering workforce development strategies and findings can be shared and leveraged. Collaborative inquiry is a process in which individuals come together to identify common challenges, analyze relevant data, and develop potential interventions for testing. Each workshop focused on a discussion of two themes: 1) broadening access and participation in engineering pathways and 2) experiential learning in engineering education. Each workshop was advertised broadly to all engineering faculty, student support staff, engineering administrators, and centers for teaching and learning. A total of 20 individuals came to the workshop at the U.K. institution, which was held in June 2024, and 19 individuals came to the workshop at the U.S. institution, which was held in August 2024. Each workshop led off with short presentations to share contextual differences between the two educational contexts and to share challenges that are encountered and what has been done on these topics, and a larger discussion occurred. Field notes and artifacts were collected from these groups and themed to identify shared challenges, supports, and opportunities for future collaborations that included, as examples rather than an exhaustive list, resources for team formation and evaluation, mathematics preparation and onboarding courses, and resources for first-year students, faculty professional development challenges and opportunities, and use of reflection as a tool in courses. Findings and implications for supporting international hubs for engineering education research and workforce development partnerships will be discussed.

Authors

Dr. Allison Godwin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0741-3356 Cornell University [biography]

Allison Godwin, Ph.D. is the Dr. G. Stephen Irwin '67, '68 Professor in Engineering Education Research (associate professor) in the Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University. Her research focuses on how identity, among other affective factors, influences diverse students to choose engineering and persist in engineering. She also studies how different experiences within the practice and culture of engineering foster or hinder belonging and identity development. Dr. Godwin graduated from Clemson University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D. in Engineering and Science Education. Her research earned her a 2016 National Science Foundation CAREER Award focused on characterizing latent diversity, which includes diverse attitudes, mindsets, and approaches to learning to understand engineering students’ identity development. She has won several awards for her research including the 2021 Journal of Civil Engineering Education Best Technical Paper, the 2021 Chemical Engineering Education William H. Corcoran Award, the 2022 American Educational Research Association Education in the Professions (Division I) 2021-2022 Outstanding Research Publication Award, and the 2023 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Research.
Michaela Pollock http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6640-7661 University College London
Prof. John Mitchell http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0710-5580 University College London [biography]

John E. Mitchell received the B.Eng. degree in electronic and electrical engineering from the Department of Electronic Engineering, University College London (UCL), London, U.K., in 1996 and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering, also from UCL, in 20
Alexandra Werth http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0310-2654 Cornell University [biography]

Alexandra Werth is an assistant professor at the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, specializing in Engineering Education Research (EER). She focuses on developing evidence-based teaching methodologies to foster authentic learning environments. Dr. Werth holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Princeton University, where she developed a non-invasive mid-infrared glucose sensor. She later conducted postdoctoral research in physics education at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she helped develop the first large-enrollment introductory physics course-based research experience (CURE).

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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