An interdisciplinary course integrating multimodal video to enhance future-proof skills for engineering students

Abstract This study explores the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary course designed to enhance engineering students’ future-proof competencies for their personal and career development in the digital era of AI. As engineering education increasingly demands professionals who are not only technically adept but also proficient in conveying complex ideas across multiple platforms, the course, “ Emerging Engineering Explained ,”—developed by a team with teachers from engineering, media production, and English - integrates these disciplines through student-produced explainer videos in their second language (L2). This exploratory case study involved 17 undergraduate students in a top Chinese university, producing five videos; follow-up interviews were conducted with six participants two years later. Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA), course feedback survey and thematic coding were used to collect and analyse data. MDA identified four core strategies from student-produced videos; survey and interview data reviewed that all interviewees perceived enhancement in the development of hard/soft skills, lifelong learning (LLL) and interdisciplinary skills, among which, competencies of media production, English, teamwork, interpersonal, communication, growth mindset, etc., were acknowledged to have sustained impact. The limited, homogeneous sample of study participants restricts the generalizability of the case study findings, while purposive sampling of interviewees may introduce cultural and institutional biases. However, we propose a preliminary interdisciplinary model, encouraging future researchers to expand and validate it in larger, more heterogeneous settings. Overall, this study expands interdisciplinary cases in engineering education, emphasizing future-proof competencies in the AI era and offers initial insights into supporting Sustainable Development Goal 4 through inclusive education.