SYNCHRONIZING THE TEACHING OF CAPSTONE DESIGN COURSE IN TWO COUNTRIES

In a globalization environment, the sharing of teaching and learning experiences among different educational systems and countries is an important educational exercise for cultivating the next generation of engineers, who will be more likely to work in international companies or in different countries. Capstone design is a good starting place for faculty collaboration and synchronization, because it reflects and assembles all the features of the curricula in different educational systems across a large number of countries. The authors have many years of combined teaching experience in two different educational systems and have launched collaborative and synchronous teaching of a capstone design course in the United States and China since 2010. The same design topics have been offered to student teams in the two collaborating schools. Based on the students' learning experience and performance in the finished projects, the major differences in the two systems are significant. For example, American students put more effort into creativity, team work, project planning and management. The American system contains a series of software applications including calculation, presentation software for CAD and analysis, such as MATLAB, MS Office, SolidWorks, Algor, etc. Chinese students emphasize individual design performance and one-on-one meetings with their faculty adviser. The Chinese system requires more detailed analyses and review of specific calculations, such as gear tooth strength verification, bearing life calculations, and other specific calculations. With all these recognized differences, a few commonly agreed upon objectives are clear. For the benefit of training global engineers, and for the efficient teaching of the senior capstone design course, it is desirable to develop a common set of lecture notes and teaching materials, with minor variations that fit the needs of the outcome-based evaluation systems in different countries. We would also like to use the same electronic tools such as Blackboard, Camtasia or Adobe Presenter for online delivery and distance teaching. To facilitate collaborative work, it is desirable that faculty members and students become proficient in both languages to create future design project teams that are truly multinational.