Providing engineering students with international writing experiences Project design and implementation

Engineers are often required to work with colleagues located in different countries and from various cultures. The globalization of our modern economies requires a workforce that can move easily between time zones and peoples. However, engineering education rarely offers students an opportunity to practice the realities of our digital and intercultural working environments. This paper documents one way to offer engineering students an international team writing experience. Students from a technical writing course in the US were paired with students from a technical writing course in Qatar to develop a set of instructions using multi-media methods. While the pilot study took effort, organization, and careful planning by the instructors, students stand to benefit a great deal from the real-world lessons that such an experience provides.