As the world rapidly progresses toward a complex global community from a collection of independent nation-states, it is increasingly evident that the future of education lies in preparing students to collaborate, communicate, and cooperate in dynamic, multidisciplinary, and multicultural spaces. The development of discipline-based differences, vocabularies, and personalities is nothing new, and as bodies of knowledge continue to grow and increase in complexity, the difficulty of translating across disciplines to address increasingly broader global challenges also increases. Similarly, the need for cultural competency is expanding beyond the number of students realistically supported by traditional study abroad programs. This project utilizes global health as the paradigm within which to pursue a novel e-learning environment in partnership with Njala University to develop this capacity for international interdisciplinary translation. The program is committed to prepare the engineering global health leaders of tomorrow with sensitivity to globalization, experience with international partnerships, and a mindset of interdisciplinary collaboration. These experiences will be a springboard for increasingly collaborative curricular experiences for our university students to work together to develop competency in intercultural interaction and to engage in sharing their unique perspectives and experiences. This study aims to measure engineering students' intercultural competence—their ability to participate in a multicultural team-based learning environment effectively—and to determine the effectiveness of curriculum to affect intercultural competency. This effort aims not only to improve the program quality but also to communicate the findings related to curriculum development to establish effective teaching methods with other programs through peer reviewed journal publications and conference presentations. This study extensively analyzes students' learning progress in intercultural competence. Data involving both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to assess student learning via pre-/post surveys and student performance in discussion board activities, reflection assignments, projects. The study emphasizes translating skills between disparate groups, be it a cultural, academic, or physical separation, as fundamental skills for the students of tomorrow.
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