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AN ENGINEERING APPROACH FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

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Conference

2013 ASEE International Forum

Location

Atlanta, Georgia

Publication Date

June 22, 2013

Start Date

June 22, 2013

End Date

June 22, 2013

Conference Session

Track 2 - Session II - Curriculum Development

Tagged Topic

Curriculum Development

Page Count

9

Page Numbers

21.10.1 - 21.10.9

DOI

10.18260/1-2--17215

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/17215

Download Count

539

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Paper Authors

biography

Claudia María Zea Restrepo P.E. Universidad EAFIT

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Claudia Zea was born in Medellin, Colombia in 1961. Graduated in 1988 as a Systems Engineer from EAFIT University with a Master’s degree in Technology in Education from the Antioquia University, awarded in 1994. She has participated in many international research projects such as the Horizon Project, RELPE, REPEAL, ALFA, CYTED and REDAL, as well as local projects envisioned towards the improvement of education in Colombia as the head of the R+D+I Group in ICT, head of the R+D Group in Computers in Education (awarded as Excellence Group Award given by COLCIENCIAS in 1997), director and principal investigator of Proyecto 50, and as the head of the Conexiones Project, all at EAFIT University and as the principal researcher for the Colombian Ministry of Education’s ICT Capacity Building project, director of the Colombia Learns portal, and as the director of the Colombian Ministry of Education’s National Program for the Usage of Media and New Technologies.

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Alejandra J. Magana Purdue University, West Lafayette Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-6117-7502

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Juan Guillermo Lalinde-Pulido Universidad EAFIT

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Alberto Rodriguez P.E. Universidad EAFIT

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Mechanical Engineer
Dean of Engineering School, EAFIT University
(http://www.eafit.edu.co).
Teacher of course of Machine Design and Conceptual Design
(http://mecanica.eafit.edu.co /Conceptual).
Program of Engineering Design and Mechanical Engineering.
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Design Engineering.
Phone: +574 385 75 69
Fax: +574 266 42 84
e-mail:arodrig@sigma.eafit.edu.co

I’m working into "EAFIT University" in Colombia with the topics related
The Definition of Design
The Purpose of Design
The Philosophy of Design
The Process of Design
To help promote design principles, methods, and technologies that lead to the education in engineering for the creation of products and services.
I was the director of Mechanical Engineering Program and Co-director of Engineering Product Design program, and also, I had the academic coordination the Design Area.
I’m working for several years (15) in the diffusion academic the Design topics.

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biography

Natalia Andrea Bueno Pizarro Universidad EAFIT

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Natalia Andrea Bueno Pizarro was born in Cali, Colombia in 1981. Graduated in 2006 as a Systems Engineer from Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana with a specialization in Teleinformatics from Universidad EAFIT. awarded in 2007. currently a student of Master of Engineering in Universidad EAFIT.

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Abstract

AN ENGINEERING APPROACH FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION.The challenges faced by future engineers, such as the scientific revolution, biotechnology in asocial context, and globalization, among others, require educational engineering institutions torespond to these challenges by innovating in their educational processes. This paper presents anengineering approach to continuous improvement in engineering education and its application inthe School of Engineering at Universidad EAFIT in Medellin, Colombia. This approach consistsof three main strands: (i) it promotes student-centered learning, (ii) a permanent curriculumrevision, and (iii) faculty development through a community of practice and continuous trainingin for a scholarly approach to engineering education. In this paper we discuss in depth the thirdstrand of this approach and the implementation process we followed. We also describe the roleof faculty members at Purdue University in supporting this process. For the development of thisproposal, the School of Engineering established a framework for organizing professors intothematic working teams where they collectively explored a research topic and designed theirresearch proposals. To identify their research topic, they discussed student learning needs anddifficulties in specific areas or subjects in the curriculum. In this way, participating teachersstarted from a research question moving into the integration of diverse processes ofconceptualization, implementation and analysis of results, building on methodologies ofparticipatory action research and reflection practices about the interventions and innovations theydeveloped. This effort was also supported by two additional initiatives: the creation of acommunity of practice and the implementation of a two-day workshop introducing faculty to acontinuous improvement process based on an engineering curricular approach. The communitiesof practice were initiated through a process of socialization and networking with the goal ofpromoting the creation of new knowledge. Specifically, we created social spaces and eventssuch as thematic cafes and virtual participation through CLEERhub. The thematic cafe is amethodology for knowledge management that creates opportunities for analysis andparticipation, where experiences are shared between those attending the activity. CLEERhub is avirtual community of faculty members and researchers interested in engineering educationresearch. During specific socialization events participants had the opportunity to exchange,generate and share information related to aspects of teaching and learning in engineering.CLEERhub supported this effort by providing a research space for each of the projects enablingthe publication of materials, training, experiences and reflections. A second initiative was theimplementation of a pre-workshop event and a two-day faculty development workshop. Duringthe pre-workshop professors discussed the importance of scientific research applied toengineering education. This event generated a reflection process on the current situation withineach of the academic departments and the creation of working groups with the participation notonly from professors, but from program and department heads as well. The second strategy was atwo-day workshop offered by a faculty member from Purdue University focused on theimplementation of an engineering and scholarly approach to curricular innovations. As part ofthe workshop faculty participants proposed a set of research projects aiming to generatesignificant changes in their curricular or pedagogical practices. In the final version of this paperwe will describe the results from each working team in terms of research projects and theiroutcomes. We will describe curricular innovations and preliminary results such as: theconstruction of an automatic system of evaluation, micro curricular redesign of capstone projectsin production engineering and competency-based redesign of the automatic control course.

Zea Restrepo, C. M., & Magana, A. J., & Lalinde-Pulido, J. G., & Rodriguez, A., & Bueno Pizarro, N. A. (2013, June), AN ENGINEERING APPROACH FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION Paper presented at 2013 ASEE International Forum, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--17215

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