Virtual Globalization: An Experience for Engineering Students in the Education 4.0 Framework

Abstract In February 2020 the World Economic Forum published its report on the characteristics of Education in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, of which several stand out for their relevant impact on engineering programs: (i) Global citizenship, building awareness about the wider world and playing an active role in the global community; (ii) Collaborative Learning, requiring peer collaboration and move close mirroring the future work; (iii) Innovation and Creativity Skills, including complex problem-solving and analytical thinking. In March 2020, the emergence of COVID-19 forced educational institutions to abruptly adopt social distancing and quarantine measures, making compliance with the Education Framework 4.0 much more challenging. However, these challenges led to new opportunities. The professors from two universities (separated by 9,500 km and 7 hours in the time zone) were discussing for some time how to make it possible to give students the opportunity to live international experiences within the Education 4.0 Framework. The result was a project of international cooperation, negotiation, leadership, empathy and broad perspective. The main questions that guided the foundations of this cooperation project were related to the specific problems that engineering schools had to face during the COVID crisis: How to meet the special requirements of courses with a Challenge-Based Learning approach? How to carry out the laboratory practices -normally included in some courses- in a collaborative remote learning way? How to compensate for the cancellation of the international exchange of students enrolled in engineering programs? The present study includes the methodology used for the selection of subjects in which cooperation would be established; the collaboration plan of the teachers involved; the design of the experiences for the realization of remote practices "hands on" (via VPN); the selection of the technological platforms that would best be adapted for the collaboration and exchange of material; and a description of how the didactic techniques and spaces for interaction were chosen at different levels (student-student, student-teacher and teacher-teacher). Finally, a brief summary of the preliminary results of the impact measurement is included - including the opinion surveys of the students and the grades obtained in the courses - and also an analysis of the future challenges (post-COVID collaboration).