Transnational collaborative learning for engineering students through active online environments: Developing “global perspective” for US and German students

Even if cultural competency is a priority for engineering education, it is often difficult to engage students in immersive international experiences that develop intercultural awareness. Especially undergraduate engineering students have to deal with packed curricula with little or no room for languages and an often unforgiving structure that puts them a year out of course sequences if they do travel for a study abroad. In this paper, we examine how an online engineering education can be a transformational factor in this challenge. When designed to create interactive, engaging learning, an online platform can support joint international experiences that develop cultural competency without requiring the time and expenses that are often a barrier for students. We present a joint online engineering course designed and implemented by the University of Virginia (UVa) and the TU Dortmund University (TU) with students from both countries.