Asee peer logo

A Multi-Decade Response to the Call for Change

Download Paper |

Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Engineering Division Technical Session - Interdisciplinary Capstone Projects, Pandemic Adapted Mechatronics Lab, Call for Change

Page Count

22

DOI

10.18260/1-2--40664

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/40664

Download Count

238

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Bart Johnson Itasca Community College

visit author page

Dr. Bart Johnson is currently the Provost and Senior Academic Officer for Itasca Community College (ICC) and the Vice-President of Academic and Student Affairs for the Northeast Higher Education District. On a regional level, he is involved with educational opportunities, economic development, and youth opportunities and activities. Prior to his administrative roles, Dr. Johnson was a faculty member in engineering at Itasca, involved with the development of the Iron Range Engineering and BELL program, and he continues to be an active participant in engineering education research; specifically, project-based learning and professional competency development. Prior to joining the engineering faculty at Itasca, Bart worked as an engineer with John Deere and the Whirlpool Corporation. Bart and his wife, Jessica, have four children—Emma, Andy, Mathew, and Gavin. Together, they enjoy a variety of outdoor activities, time at the cabin, youth sports, and the family-farming operation.

visit author page

author page

Ronald Ulseth

author page

Michael Raich Itasca Community College

Download Paper |

Abstract

Engineering and society have always been intertwined, especially with the accepted realization of technology's significant and rapidly increasing influence on the evolution of society. As a profession, engineering has a vital role in sustainably meeting needs and exploring opportunities that are ever changing and evolving. As societal and industry needs have evolved, engineering education itself has raised the call several times for evolving the way engineers are educated; however, the recent history of engineering education is, overall, one of missed opportunities. This was brought to a headline recently as ASEE leadership authored an article entitled “Stuck in 1955, Engineering Education Needs a Revolution.” Those words say it all. We see a need for a revolution in engineering education that looks at developing a whole new engineer that is equipped to operate in the age of information and Industry 4.0. This is vital to not only the field of engineering but for society.

This paper parallels the calls for change in engineering education with the development story of a multi-disciplinary engineering education model that is often referred to as a beacon of light for change in engineering education. As is highlighted in the currently ongoing ASEE workforce summit series, the world of engineering is shifting beneath our feet. The world of engineering education must shift with it or face irrelevancy. The future iterations of this program are focused on developing graduates with digital savvy, new skills in innovating and collaborating, problem framing expertise, and horizontal leadership skills, while putting emphasis on the impacts in the economic development of rural regions.

In the initial stages, 1990’s–2000’s, the program’s faculty spent time innovating in courses and curricula trying to shift towards the recently released ABET 2000 student outcome criteria in a rural community college setting. The mid-2000’s brought the development of a multi-disciplinary upper division university satellite program that embraced the Aalborg (DK) model of PBL. The new multi-disciplinary program had ABET outcomes at its core, focusing on the development of a whole new engineer, especially developing innovative strategies to intentionally promote growth of the professional person. By 2020, the program had achieved disruption, earning an ABET innovation award and being named an “emerging world leader in engineering education” in the Reimagining and Rethinking Engineering Education report. The latest evolution of the program combines on-line learning and work-based learning for a sustainable model that serves a culturally diverse nationwide audience of community college completers. This is a story of innovative curricula putting team-based project learning at its core. Promising strategies addressed in the paper include ABET outcomes, reflection, identity building, metacognition, teamwork, industry PBL, recruiting, learning communities, and continuous improvement. The conclusion puts a spotlight on where the program and engineering education in the U.S. needs to journey next.

Johnson, B., & Ulseth, R., & Raich, M. (2022, August), A Multi-Decade Response to the Call for Change Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40664

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2022 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015