Flesher, A., & Chatterjee, I., & Loranz, D., & Wasala, M., & Vollstedt, A. (2025, April), Engineering Pathway for Access, Community, and Transfer  Paper presented at 2025 ASEE PSW Conference, California Polytechnic University, California. 10.18260/1-2--55170

\bibitem{asee_peer_55170}
  Flesher, A., \& Chatterjee, I., \& Loranz, D., \& Wasala, M., \& Vollstedt, A. (2025, April), \emph{Engineering Pathway for Access, Community, and Transfer}
  Paper presented at 2025 ASEE PSW Conference, California Polytechnic University, California.
  10.18260/1-2--55170

Anne Flesher, Indira Chatterjee, Daniel Loranz, Milinda Wasala, and Ann-Marie Vollstedt.  "Engineering Pathway for Access, Community, and Transfer".  2025 ASEE PSW Conference, California Polytechnic University, California, 2025, April.  ASEE Conferences, 2025.  https://peer.asee.org/55170 Internet.  11 Jul, 2025

\bibitem{asee_peer_55170}
  Anne Flesher, Indira Chatterjee, Daniel Loranz, Milinda Wasala, and Ann-Marie Vollstedt.
  "Engineering Pathway for Access, Community, and Transfer".
  \emph{2025 ASEE PSW Conference, California Polytechnic University, California, 2025, April}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2025.
  https://peer.asee.org/55170 Internet.  11 Jul, 2025

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_55170
author = "Anne Flesher, Indira Chatterjee, Daniel Loranz, Milinda Wasala, and Ann-Marie Vollstedt"
title = "Engineering Pathway for Access, Community, and Transfer"
booktitle = "2025 ASEE PSW Conference"
year = "2025"
month = "April"
address = "California Polytechnic University, California"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/55170}
number = {10.18260/1-2--55170}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -      Currently, significant gaps exist in the transfer process between regional community colleges and the University of Nevada Reno’s engineering Bachelor’s degree programs. These gaps impact community college students in several significant ways. In addition to affecting graduation completion rates, students may not see themselves as engineers, thus negatively impacting their ability to conclude their college course of study in two years and their success in securing employment after graduation. Additionally, in Nevada, the problem may be associated with cultural, structural, and organizational barriers. The Engineering Pathways for Access, Community, and Transfer (EPACT) project (NSF RED Award Number 2330583) poses a key question:  Can we bring the regional community colleges and the University into cultural, structural, and organizational alignment around the transfer process, given the radically different contexts and values?
     To address the structural and cultural changes needed to improve the transfer process, our project aims to collaboratively build three online courses—Statics, Dynamic, and Circuits—that will be shared across the three northern Nevada community colleges.  These three courses will allow community college engineering students to complete a crucial sequence of 200-level classes traditionally not offered at their home institutions.  The important aspects of the courses are not just the content (which must be aligned across all the institutions), but also the design and delivery of each course using a community college student lens; issues include integration of support, resources, DEI components and student learning outcomes aligned with engineering accreditation agency, ABET.  Because the three community colleges offering the courses are geographically distributed, the courses must be delivered as online courses, creating more in-depth development and challenges requiring stronger collaboration among the community college and University faculty.  This collaborative approach represents a novel and unprecedented effort. We aim to empower the community college faculty while designing courses reinforcing transfer students' identities as engineering students. Additionally, we strive to cultivate a strong sense of belonging to holistically support students’ transition and success throughout the transfer process and beyond. 
     The EPACT project has had many significant results so far, starting with the development of a faculty Community of Practice (CoP) named the Nevada Engineering Educators Team (NEET). The NEET CoP is comprised of faculty from across the northern Nevada community colleges and the College of Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. In order to bring faculty together and to help them form a collaborative, cooperative team, we held a Summer Symposium in May 2024. During that time, we integrated various members of our RED project team:  the change expert, the external evaluator, the ABET accreditation expert, and a change coach. In our second year of the project, the deep collaboration of the NEET faculty in developing courses is successfully taking shape.  
	This presentation aligns with the theme of innovative and inclusive curriculum and pedagogy, focusing on how engineering educators can foster inclusive and engaging learning environments that promote teamwork and deep collaboration. It highlights our collective efforts to prioritize identity, a sense of belonging, and inclusion in course design. Additionally, the presentation seeks feedback from faculty across institutions to inform the ongoing development and refinement of these courses.


AU  - Anne Flesher
AU  - Indira Chatterjee
AU  - Daniel Loranz
AU  - Milinda Wasala
AU  - Ann-Marie Vollstedt
CY  - California Polytechnic University, California
DA  - 2025/04/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Engineering Pathway for Access, Community, and Transfer
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/55170
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--55170
ER  -