Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Main Menu

Session 3160

It’s Time to Re-think Engineering Education Conferences

Russel C. Jones World Expertise LLC

Bethany S. Oberst James Madison University

Thomas J. Siller Colorado State University

Abstract

The annual meeting of SEFI (The European Society for Engineering Education), held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on September 12 – 14, 2001, provided a model for what engineering education conferences should be in the future. If engineering education is truly a global enterprise, then we, as professionals, must make these meetings truly international. This can be accomplished by enabling a wide range of colleagues from around the world to participate and to take an active role in disseminating useful information about the processes of teaching and learning in the engineering environment. Two barriers to such democratized participation were attacked in this event: the barrier of culture ignorance, which means that engineers from one part of the world do not always have sufficient understanding of the issues affecting their colleagues elsewhere, and the barrier of cost, which prevents many engineering educators from developing parts of the world from attending in person even the most important international events. The SEFI Copenhagen meeting was the core around which were built 1) a pre-conference, 2) an electronic conference, and 3) a post-conference. Each of these components was designed to enhance the experience of traditional attendees, to attract attendees from other countries and educational traditions, and to extend the benefits of the conference to those unable to attend in person. This paper explains each of the three components and proposes a model for use by future engineering education gatherings.

The European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI)

SEFI (Société européenne pour la formation des ingénieurs) is the major engineering education organization of Europe with membership composed of individuals, educational institutions, industries and related organizations. Since its founding in 1973 SEFI has pursued its mission “to contribute to the development and improvement of engineering education in the economic, social and cultural framework of Europe.” SEFI promotes the

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

Main Menu

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Oberst, B., & Jones, R. (2002, June), Productive Extensions To International Engineering Education Conferences Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10880