Conference Session

TC2K Methods and Models

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mohan Ketkar, Prairie View A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

2006-1817: CASE STUDY REVEALS SEVERAL BENEFITS INCLUDINGDEVELOPMENT OF SOFT SKILLS FOR ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGYSTUDENTS AND ASSESSMENT OF KEY TAC-ABET PROGRAM OUTCOMESMohan Ketkar, Prairie View A&M University Dr. Ketkar is an Assistant Professor and coordinator of the Electrical Engineering Technology program at the PVAMU, TX. He received MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research areas include communication electronics, instrumentation, and numerical methods. He has been the instructor for senior project courses at University of Houston, TX and PVAMU. He is a member of the College Committee for ABET at the PVAMU. He has participated in several workshops

Conference Session

Computer ET Curriculum

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Hurny, Rochester Institute of Technology; Gina Hurny, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

Pilot ProgramAbstractStudent attrition and student learning are of major interest to colleges and universities.Collaborative learning or more specifically learning communities with its associated pedagogy isoffered as an approach to enhance both. This paper describes a pilot approach at RochesterInstitute of Technology (RIT). The purpose of this program was to integrate learning communityconcepts and methodologies into the instruction protocol of Computer Engineering Technology(CpET) first-year students. The creation of an interdisciplinary collaboration would be used toenable the continual integration of liberal arts course work and “soft skill” training into technicalcourse instruction over a three quarter academic year. The organizational

Conference Session

TC2K Methods and Models

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Timothy Skvarenina, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

outcomes weredivided into sub-outcomes that were more readily assessable.Assessment of the Program OutcomesOnce the outcomes were defined, we had to determine how to assess the student achievement ofthe outcomes. Of particular concern were the so-called “soft skills,” such as teamwork,communications skills, global perspectives, ethics, life-long learning, and contemporary issues.Assessment of these can be difficult at best, particularly when it comes to triangulating results;i.e., providing more than one method of assessing the outcomes. While some members of thefaculty desired to leave the soft skills to the students’ humanities and social science courses, thatwas not a practical solution for our program because there is a wide variety of