S outheastern U niversity and C ollege C oalition for E ngineering ED ucation

1. Southeastern University and College Coalition for Engineering EDucation Elements of Engineering Education Improvement: The SUCCEED Coalition Experience Tim Anderson University of Florida Clemson UniversityFlorida A&M UniversityFlorida State UniversityGeorgia Institute of TechnologyNorth Carolina A&T State UniversityNorth Carolina State UniversityUniversity of FloridaUniversity of North Carolina—CharlotteVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

2. Outline • What is the SUCCEED Engineering Education Coalition? • SUCCEED’s Curriculum Model • Four Essential Elements to Sustain Continuous Improvement • assessment and evaluation • focus on student success • partnerships • faculty development • Concluding Remarks

3. VA o o NC o o o SC o GA o o FL SUCCEED’s Eight Member Colleges • Enroll over 28,000 engineering undergraduates • Award 1/13 of all U.S. engineering degrees • Award 1/5 of all U.S. engineering degrees awarded to African-Americans • Award 1/12 of all U.S. engineering degrees awarded to women Data based on reports of the Engineering Manpower Commission of the AAES, 1996-1997 edition; contact: Carl Zorowski

4. Key Attributes Curriculum Model SUCCEED’s Curriculum Model Student Success • Technically Competent • Capable Designers and Integrators • Critical and Creative Thinkers • Effective Communicators • Team Players • Life-long Learners • Globally Aware • Professionally Responsible • Positive Attitude

5. SUCCEED’s Curriculum Model Student Success • Content and • Structure • Subject Integration • Early and Multi-disciplinary Design • Engineering Practice • Explicit Skill Development • Matched Teaching / Learning Styles • Processes and Systems to Enhance Student Learning • Continuous Faculty Development • Technology-Based Delivery • Learning Support Systems • Continuous Improvement Processes Key Attributes

6. Outline • Four Essential Elements to Sustain Continuous Improvement • assessment and evaluation • focus on student success • partnerships • faculty development

7. Assessment & Evaluation Goal: Develop processes to ensure continuous curriculum improvement Before SUCCEED • Working under old ‘discipline bean counting’ accreditation process • Few departments had “assessment plans” • Very little data gathering - Some self assessment survey • Graduating senior exit interviews • Course and instructor evaluations

8. SUCCEED SUCCESSES • SUCCEED and other coalitions made a significant contributions to new ABET Engineering Criteria 2000 • Multiple tools developed to facilitate implementation • Guide to formative and summative evaluation and assessment • Manual & software tools to facilitate continuous curriculum renewal • Coalition-wide assessment instruments (e.g., climate survey for women, faculty development, freshman attributes, qualitative college level assessment) • Databases and benchmarks established • Longitudinal Database – all student records since 1987

9. Odds Ratios and Confidence Intervals for Significant Courses(increase in retention odds per 1 point increase in grade) All other courses had 95% Wald CIs [<1.0, >1.0] (i.e., not significant)

10. What are the Implications? • Curriculum development: It should be possible to introduce more flexibility into the curriculum and allow students to take some of the core courses later in program. • Pedagogical innovation: Chemistry may require the same sort of attention that Calculus has received. • Advising: Potentially more effective to focus on a subset of core courses, rather than treat all core courses as a single set. • The presence of three lab courses underscores the importance of active, experiential learning. Freshman Lab

11. Lessons Learned on Evaluation and Assessment • A person at the college level with responsibility for evaluation & assessment is critical • Considerable differences exist between Universities, colleges and disciplines – need to understand them • Student learning is a shared responsibility – engage all stakeholders • Focus on first-order effects, simple measurements often best, ….. Student Flow

12. Outline • Four Essential Elements to Sustain Continuous Improvement • assessment and evaluation • focus on student success • partnerships • faculty development

13. NC State FTIC Retention Years most impacted by SUCCEED are well above others FTIC=First-Time in College by Government Standards All curves have data points up to 1999 A ten-percent improvement graduates over 100 more engineers (Cohort >1100)

14. Focus on Student Success Minorities Leadership Leveraging Mentoring by other minorities Bridge programs Women Mentoring by upperclass women and women working as engineers All Students Early design Equipment dissection Explicit teamwork / time management skill development Subject integration Studio learning Writing to learn Mentoring by upperclass students Transfer mentoring STEPUP ECI Freshman Laboratory MAPS Mentoring CC Transfer Workshop IMPEC

15. Outline • Four Essential Elements to Sustain Continuous Improvement • assessment and evaluation • focus on student success • partnerships • faculty development

16. Roger’s Criteria • Diffusion of products and ideas • Belief - good ones will sell themselves • Fact - diffusion is disappointingly slow • Optimal conditions • Relative advantage • Compatibility • Complexity • Trialability and Observability

17. Method • Selected six recognized “good” products • Performed case studies of diffusion and adoption success - 1997-99 • Data gathering methods - • Interviews - project director and participants, faculty, campus administrators, distributor representatives, adopters, users • Reviews - project documents, funding proposals, journal articles, conference papers, course syllabi and the product itself.

18. Important Factors • Successful Diffusion Criteria • Partnership • Product Quality • Low Cost • Roger’s Diffusion Factors • Relative Advantage • Compatibility • Complexity • Trailability and Observability

19. Engineering Practice IPPD Multidisciplinary Design Horizontal integration Real-world problems Multi-university Service learning Team internships Entrepreneurship Virtual corporations IPPD Growth IPPD Survey Alternative Approaches Vertical integration Early design Immersion Evolving design International internships IPPD Comments Immersion Engineering Entrepreneurs

20. The Key to a Successful Partnership is Choosing the Right Partner • Understand your weaknesses and find a partner who mitigates them, and vice versa • Identify your common strengths and use them to dominate • You and your partner should behave as one • Constant communication with your partner is essential for success • Accept success as a team and face setbacks as a team

21. The Key to a Successful Partnership is Choosing the Right Partner • Understand your weaknesses and find a partner who mitigates them, and vice versa • Identify your common strengths and use them to dominate • You and your partner should behave as one • Constant communication with your partner is essential for success • Accept success as a team and face setbacks as ateam Advice given to me by my tennis coach in selecting a doubles partner!

22. Outline • Four Essential Elements to Sustain Continuous Improvement • assessment and evaluation • focus on student success • partnerships • faculty development

23. Faculty Development • Faculty are the key to reform and implementation of new curricular models • Before SUCCEED • Faculty teaching workshop at only one institution • Formal mentoring program on books at majority of colleges, but not active • Reward system highly biased towards research

24. Course on Teaching Mentoring Linkages to Campus FD Faculty Rewards & Incentives Designated FD Coordinator SUCCEED FD Model Faculty Learning Opportunities Graduate Student Programs New Faculty Programs Workshops Learning Communities Orientation to Teaching

25. Example – Institutionalization at NCSU • Director of Faculty Development • Faculty Workshops • New faculty workshop • Continuing faculty teaching workshops – FCTL/COE • Mentoring workshop • COE Teach • Specialty workshops • Formal Mentoring Program • Reward System Modified • Graduate Student Workshops • Orientation to Teaching – FCTL • COE Orientation Sessions

26. Coalition Faculty Participation The participation data shown here are adjusted for faculty attending multiple events. Aggressive target surpassed. A survey was used to assess changes in teaching practices and campus climate. 72% Target

27. Student Success Enrollment and Degrees Awarded Retention Improvement Enrollment of Women Enrollment of Minorities

28. For More Informationand Copy of Slides Visit SUCCEED’s web site at http://www.succeednow.org