I spent the fall semester of 2014 at Insper University as an Education Design Consultant. There, I worked with faculty to help develop an engineering program that would be piloted the following semester. We explored how we could create a learning style and culture similar to that of Olin College, but in the context of Insper University. A challenge was working with restrictions from the Brazilian Ministry of Education, balancing existing and potential student life, and cultural differences.
KEY TAKEAWAYS: Designers have to be flexible when trying to implement a model into a different context. The cultural and environmental changes should be seen as opportunities to improve the existing model.