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.