Work in progress — Engaging engineering students in broader abet outcomes via community of learners instruction

This paper presents the design-based research framework for a new course (the contemporary world of electrical engineering) that uses a community of learners model to integrate professional and personal development skills into an in-depth overview of major sub-fields of electrical engineering. The combination of a community of learners format with a gateway (survey) course context targets (a) improvement in the student's sense of belonging to various levels of community within the University and (b) enhancing the student's understanding and embrace of broader ABET outcomes. These broader outcomes include those criteria that are typically difficult for engineering programs to address in a meaningful integrated way, including professional and ethical responsibility, broader impacts of technology, and rich, meaningful oral and written communication.