Review of the Tool “Virtual Amazing Race”

June 2022

Nan Kong, Purdue University

In the past spring semester (Spring 2022), I was the instructor of BME 390, the “Junior Design” course. The main goal of the course is to have the students go through the process of user-centered ideation to develop their Product Design Proposal. Towards the end of the semester, I asked my class to complete this activity in groups of 2 to 4 in class. When I described the activity, I introduced the VEIL teams I would like to form in the coming fall semester (Fall 2022) in collaboration with the Universidad de Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay. We told the class I would like to use this tool to have them acquire some understanding on multicultural learning of user-centered engineering design. I also introduced the assessment instrument, ASKS2+, and asked them to do a retrospective pre-post self-assessment on attitudes, skills, & knowledge towards multicultural learning after the experience of the Virtual Amazing Race. To enhance this experience, I asked the students to do some debriefing with me. I asked them to complete in class or offline during a period of two weeks (4 lectures of nearly 2 hours). I posted them 2 reminders during the period. Due to the specific partnership development, I asked the students to do the virtual amazing race in Montevideo.

Due to the tight schedule, I intentionally omitted assignments no. 2 and no.3. That is a) the cultural context (oral and written reflection questions completed prior to and after trip) and b) dialogue with peers in the host country. For no. 2, I did not find the specific prompt of reflection questions. For no. 3, there was no peers from the host country. In addition, I did not make the three learning objectives specifically. This review makes me see the importance of better preparation, especially 1) having the students complete the reflection questions; and 2) having them from the host country to help on the activity. As a result, no students actually completed and submitted their ASKS2+ questionnaire. Further, the locations where to take screenshots are not very health care related or vulnerable population related. When I offer this activity the next time, I should think about this more creatively. For example, ask them to find the campus of the Universidad de Montevideo, major hospitals and nursing homes, and low-income communities.

As a final note, I will borrow the slides on Part 1 Goal and Part 2 Cultural Context, included in the online document. And I will present the VALUE Rubric to let the students more clearly the intent of this activity.   

The Amazing Race lesson is designed for students who are going to have a study abroad.  This activity could be applied to a broad audience.  The idea of this tool is fantastic, because the approach is  “learning-by-doing”.  This is a strength of the Amazing Race activity. Overall, we are convinced in emphasizing on this avenue for learning, in where the students can learn something when it is relevant and necessary.  The real world is full of learning opportunities in any field, really, and, incredibly important in the context of intercultural development and competence.  When students are living or exposed to real-life culture (s), one can see the enthusiasm, engagement, learning best and enjoyment of the experience.  If that is the case, they will grow interest towards developing their intercultural competence. The weaknesses of the Amazing Race is the format for collecting information. First, requesting 300-500 words is too much, time consuming, it is a torture in my opinion. If for some reason the participant chooses a place where there is not much to say, it would be a struggle.  Second, to ask a stranger (local culture from any destination), the type of questions suggested for this activity, is somehow uncomfortable for the participant and the local. It is assumed that all participants or locals are extrovert and opened to share the meaning of things. That, perhaps even the local does not know or feel comfortable with requests because not everyone asks himself or herself those questions of their own place (likely taken for granted). In any event, it seems to me a bit pushy, in a weird kind of way. For instance, not going out of the country (US), if someone goes to a different state within the US, where things are unknown to oneself as well, I’m not sure if people would be opened to that (imagine, someone from Nebraska visiting NYC, stopping people to ask what the Empire State means to that person!! Frankly, with the fast-pace in that city, there will be not success).  Here in the US, there are like several countries - the west, the east, the south and the Midwest- all these regions have different “cultures” (and attitudes).  In any event, I would like to use this approach because the program planned for my study abroad to Valencia, Spain, includes activities that align with the suggested items from both groups A and B in the Amazing Race lesson, however, I will modify the activity questions.  I will use cards, the size of a postcard, to request their impressions for a specific item and to report in a short manner, a place as the subject and a selfie as the participant, or even, implement a game, where the answer will be easy to respond telling me more about their experience rather than making them to seat for a lengthy write-up of something just to get by.