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Assessing the Impact of Student Choice of Electives

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Conference

ASEE Southeast Section Conference

Location

Arlington, Virginia

Publication Date

March 12, 2023

Start Date

March 12, 2023

End Date

March 14, 2023

Conference Session

Retention

Tagged Topic

Professional Engineering Education Papers

Page Count

8

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44988

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44988

Download Count

57

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Paper Authors

biography

Colin J. Reagle P.E. George Mason University

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Colin Reagle specializes in the areas of thermal fluid flows and sustainable energy systems. He leverages his past experience as a researcher at Virginia Tech, which includes projects for Solar Turbines, Siemens, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, and Honeywell. Reagle also worked as a researcher for Techsburg, a small engineering services company in Christiansburg, Virginia.

Reagle's primary focus at Mason is teaching and leadership in the Mechanical Engineering undergraduate program. He has a passion for working with students and enabling them to pursue their goals.

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biography

Oscar Barton Jr Morgan State University

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Oscar Barton, Jr., Ph.D., P.E. is Dean of the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. School of Engineering at Morgan State University. A native of Washington, D.C., he received his B.S in Mechanical Engineering from Tuskegee (Institute) University, his M.S in Mechanical Engineering and Ph.D. degree in Applied Mechanics from Howard University.

Dr. Barton joined Morgan State in 2020 after serving as Professor and Inaugural Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Volgenau School of Engineering at George Mason University, a position held since 2014. Before joining Mason, he served as the first African American selected as Department Chair, Mechanical Engineering Department, Division of Engineering and Weapons at the U.S. Naval Academy. Dr. Barton served on its faculty for twenty-two years.

Dr. Barton’s research focuses on the development of approximate closed form solutions for linear self-adjoint systems, those that govern the responses of composite structures, and the analysis of dynamic systems. He has published over 60 journal and conference articles on these topics. Dr. Barton has mentored numerous midshipmen through independent research projects and has directed two Trident Scholars, the Naval Academy's flagship research program.

Dr. Barton is actively involved in curriculum innovation and program assessment. He chaired ASME's Committee on Engineering Education and served as a member-at-large on the Executive Committee of the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET. Currently, he serves on ASME Foundation Board, NACME Board and a Trustee on the Board of Missouri Science and Tech, MS & T. Dr. Barton holds a professional engineering license in the State Maryland.

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Abstract

During the 2019-20 Academic Year, the department of Mechanical Engineering made a controversial decision. Instead of mandating which technical courses students could select to satisfy their electives requirements, students would be allowed to take any upper level course at the University. The background and discussion that went into this decision to will be presented as well as a look at what our students actually chose to take after the change went into effect and the impact that it may have on our program.

Reagle, C. J., & Barton, O. (2023, March), Assessing the Impact of Student Choice of Electives Paper presented at ASEE Southeast Section Conference, Arlington, Virginia. 10.18260/1-2--44988

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