Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions

Abstract As a result of growing student mobility and globalization, higher education institutions now host a more diversified student body comprising individuals of varying ages, races, ethnicities, nationalities, linguistic/cultural backgrounds, and sexual orientations. An inclusive, diverse environment promotes social progress and justice in higher education. It empowers students and staff, encouraging the generation of novel ideas and fostering higher levels of achievement and a better sense of belonging among students. Recently, one of the key premises in higher education has been the importance of educators being proactive rather than reactive in addressing cultural issues. It is a reality that the professional development and training of teachers that train them authentically and effectively on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, effectively and respectfully with all vulnerable groups, is still incipient despite being the key to creating a climate in which all students truly feel part of the learning community. Integrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) into the curriculum is complex and may not be seen as essential in teacher education, especially in contexts with low or no diversity. However, one of the educators' responsibilities historically is to provide students with the basic skills to become successful members of our society. To be successful in any social or professional group, it is necessary to be tolerant of differences, to be accepted, and to accept others. By providing professional development and formal training in DEI, teachers could have the tools to teach students to truly understand the characteristics of others and create an inclusive environment. This study proposes to define a research methodology whose data collection and analysis tools will allow us to answer our research question on how to train teachers in Latin America and the Caribbean in DEI from the educational approach in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Following a multiple case study methodology, this paper presents the results of teacher training in DEI+STEM in the context of higher education institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, which are directly related to some advances in compliance with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) number 4 on quality education of the countries of this region in the SDG Index. The obtained data allow us to understand the existence of educational needs of university professors from Latin America and the Caribbean, who wanted to learn not only about STEM and migration but also about the intersectionality of DEI with other minorities, such as black communities, natives, Hispanics in the United States, and LGBTIQ+.

Medellin, Colombia. His work area is specifically the online laboratories and assessment systems, he conducted

This Innovative Practice full paper presents a software system which purpose is to be used to compose online laboratory experiences.Online Laboratories have improved their reliability and interoperability thanks to innovative developments proposed in recent years. New companies in this area have proposed novel interaction mechanisms such as the inclusion of immersive graphic user interfaces as well as the possibilities for access laboratory experiments as a service, having the alternative of just paying for the laboratory services demanded, for an specific class or for individual users. In terms of technology it is now possible to have multiple laboratory instances running from a single laboratory infrastructure or laboratory station. In terms of standardization, big efforts have been made by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the community of Online Laboratories to release in 2019 the first standard 18762019 - IEEE Standard for Networked Smart Learning Objects for Online Laboratories.The software system presented in this work uses a set of available resources including virtual laboratories (simulation based), local laboratory equipment, remote laboratories, laboratory activities, assessment definition and learning content (text, audio, video, etc). The system provides to the users a friendly set of tools to compose their laboratory experiences, following the IEEE 1876-2019 standard definition. The output composed laboratory experiment is saved as a Smart Laboratory Learning Object (SLLO) including mechanisms to be self-adaptable according to variables such as laboratory activities difficulty level, user previous results on the same or similar laboratory activities, and user expertise in the topic (determined based on information retrieved from the Learning Management System LMS).