Work in Progress - Engineering Health Equity: Perspective and Pedagogy of Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning and Impact on Learners’ Social Identity

Aug 24, 2026

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This research investigates beliefs about health disparities, systems, and innovation among honors/engineering students enrolled in a Health Equity course. The course brings together undergraduates across engineering and multiple social and basic science disciplines through co-designing solutions to reduce disparities. The Global Learning Short Scale Plus (G.L.S2+) measures global self-awareness, cultural diversity, responsibility, understanding of global systems, and application to contemporary contexts. Analyses identify Personal and Social Responsibility as a predominant belief factor and describe experiences that drive engagement and action, especially related to global systems’ factors.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Health equity and context of use

Course development and pedagogy

Related Work

Paper ID \#38563 Work in Progress: Engineering Health Equity: Perspective and Pedagogy of Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning and Impact on Learners’ Social Identity Dr. Mayari I. Serrano, Purdue University, West Lafayette Mayari Serrano Anazco is a visiting clinical assistant professor at the College of Engineering and John Martinson Honors College at Purdue University. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology Engineering at Ecuador’s Army Polytechnic School and her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Computer and Information Technology from Purdue University. After obtaining her Ph.D., she was appointed as the first post-doctoral fellow of the Women in Engineering Program at Purdue University. She has authored, co-authored, implemented, and assessed learning activities, outreach activities, and workshops focused on modifying negative attitudes towards technology and engineering and increasing knowledge of several topics of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) . Mayari Serrano’s research focuses on commercial and educational technologies’ effect on teaching, learning, diversity, and inclusion. Her publications show interdisciplinary interest and cover multimodal learning environments, embodied cognition, complex concepts, user experience, spatial abilities, gender bias, gender stereotypes, e-mentoring, sense of belonging, campus climate, and exergaming. Natalia M. Rodriguez Daniel Guberman Dr. Jacqueline Callihan Linnes, Purdue University, West Lafayette Dr. Jacqueline Callihan Linnes is the Marta E. Gross Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the College of Engineering Honors Program at Purdue University. Her work advances paper microfluidics, molecular biosensors, and human-centered instrumentation design for translation into point-of-care diagnostics for global health and health disparities research. She teaches undergraduate design courses for first year engineering honors and capstone design, graduate level instrumentation measurement and point-of-care diagnostics, and human-centered design workshops to practitioners around the world. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2023 Engineering Health Equity: Perspective and Pedagogy of Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning and Impact on Learners’ Social Identity Abstract This research explored the beliefs related to the health disparities, systems, and innovation of honors/engineering students enrolled in a course on Health Equity. This course aims to bring together undergraduate students across disciplines from engineering, public health, pharmacy, anthropology, sociology, and other social and basic sciences to learn from each other through co-designing solutions to address health disparities. The Global Learning Short Scale Plus (G.L.S2+ ) was used to assess students’ beliefs related to global self awareness, cultural diversity, personal and social responsibility, understanding global systems, and applying knowledge to the contemporary global context. Qualitative and quantitative analyses showed Personal and Social Responsibility was a predominant factor influencing students’ beliefs. Numerous experiences were identified as drivers of involvement or action with an interest in the global systems’factors. Introduction To ensure the successful and equitable implementation of health technology innovations, engineers must seek a holistic understanding of the intended contexts of use and both intended and unintended consequences of the technologies they design, implement, and supervise. However, curricula in fields such as engineering, technology, and computer science, traditionally focus concerted efforts on designing to fulfill technical requirements but neglect the needs of ecosystems and communities impacted by their technical solutions (Jordan et al., 2021) . Equity is commonly addressed under a field-specific lens of privacy, clinical bias, gender bias, race/ethnicity bias, hardware and

FAQs

What was the focus of the Health Equity course and how were students organized?

The course targeted beliefs about health disparities, systems, and innovation. It brought together undergraduates across engineering, public health, pharmacy, anthropology, sociology, and other basic sciences to learn through co-designing solutions.

How were students’ beliefs assessed in the study?

The Global Learning Short Scale Plus (G.L.S2+) was used to measure beliefs related to global self-awareness, cultural diversity, personal and social responsibility, understanding global systems, and applying knowledge to the contemporary global context.

Which belief factor was found to be most influential?

Personal and Social Responsibility emerged as the predominant factor influencing students’ beliefs, with multiple experiences identified as drivers of engagement or action.

Aug 24, 2026

Upload by Ezra