Conference Session

Construction 3: Beyond the Academy: Leveraging Partnerships, Internships, and Outreach

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kamalesh Panthi, East Carolina University; Donna A. Hollar, East Carolina University; George C. Wang P.E., East Carolina University

Tagged Divisions

Construction

responsibility to find and arrange work experiencesrests with the student. Acceptable work experiences were described to students and industryemployers as “construction related work experience under a licensed general contractor orsimilarly organized entity.” Detailed criteria on the type of work that would satisfy the 500 hoursexperience requirement had not been widely communicated. Since job functions andresponsibilities assigned to student interns varied greatly among construction employers,program educators found it necessary to evaluate the students’ work experiences for verificationof the graduation requirement and to assess if duties were preparing students for management-related employment.The program recently initiated a more streamlined review

Conference Session

Construction 2: Teaching Using Projects, Case Studies, and Service Learning

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert B. Austin, Bowling Green State University

Tagged Divisions

Construction

), BGSU’s performance fellconsistently below the national average. The reasons for this decline, according to programfaculty, staff, and students, included marginalization of the capstone course in the curriculum,lax enforcement of course prerequisites, inconsistent exam weighting, and student apathy. Thesubstandard results appeared not to be due to insufficient student engagement outside of theclassroom, given that the program offers three cooperative education opportunities, inter-collegiate student academic competitions, and an active industry advisory board. Rather, itseemed that there was room for improving student engagement in program coursework.Student engagement is associated with student retention (Astin 1993, 1999) and may help

Conference Session

Construction 2: Teaching Using Projects, Case Studies, and Service Learning

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Denise Diana Gravitt, Western Illinois University

Tagged Divisions

Construction

debate case study to reflect the increasing level of difficulty oftopics and the decreasing amount of information provided by the instructor. The students wereprovided with a scored points outline (see Appendix B) attached to their written research papersso they were aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their research and debate preparation foreach case study.Summary and Lessons LearnedThe legal course was taught two times with the same text book before introduction of debates inthe course. The reason for introduction of the debates was not to improve overall course grades,which were in the 83% to 85% overall for those two semesters, but in the hopes of improvingstudent participation, motivation for learning the materials, and understanding