Assessment of global competencies within Purdue University's College of Engineering
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To develop solutions to grand challenges, engineers must be prepared to work effectively in and with the complexities of new and diverse environments, and analyze problems holistically, from various cultural frames of reference. This project determined if it is possible to measure a set of global competency-type attributes mapped from Purdue's Engineer of 2020 Target Attributes. This information was used to evaluate whether the programs assessed address attributes of global competence, and guide the way for developing a more comprehensive model of global competence and determining appropriate methodologies to measure competence. This paper presents assessment results from primarily engineering students participating in one of the following global learning opportunities: (1) Introduction to Global Engineering, a first-year engineering seminar course, (2) short-term study abroad programs hosted and approved by the College of Engineering, and (3) Global Design Teams, an international service-learning opportunity. Preliminary results indicate that the targeted programs positively impact students' self-assessment of most of the measured global competence attributes, however, freshmen students tend to self-assess at a higher level than upperclassmen and graduate students.
