Williamson, D. G., & Fridley, K. J., & Back, W. E. (2015, June), From Disciplinary to Multidisciplinary Programs: Educational Outcomes, BOK’s, and Accreditation  Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.24139

\bibitem{asee_peer_24139}
  Williamson, D. G., \& Fridley, K. J., \& Back, W. E. (2015, June), \emph{From Disciplinary to Multidisciplinary Programs: Educational Outcomes, BOK’s, and Accreditation}
  Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Seattle, Washington.
  10.18260/p.24139

Derek Guthrie Williamson, Kenneth J. Fridley, and W.  Edward Back.  "From Disciplinary to Multidisciplinary Programs: Educational Outcomes, BOK’s, and Accreditation".  2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 2015, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2015.  https://peer.asee.org/24139 Internet.  13 Dec, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_24139}
  Derek Guthrie Williamson, Kenneth J. Fridley, and W.  Edward Back.
  "From Disciplinary to Multidisciplinary Programs: Educational Outcomes, BOK’s, and Accreditation".
  \emph{2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 2015, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2015.
  https://peer.asee.org/24139 Internet.  13 Dec, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_24139
author = "Derek Guthrie Williamson, Kenneth J. Fridley, and W.  Edward Back"
title = "From Disciplinary to Multidisciplinary Programs: Educational Outcomes, BOK’s, and Accreditation"
booktitle = "2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2015"
month = "June"
address = "Seattle, Washington"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/24139}
number = {10.18260/p.24139}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -          From Disciplinary to Multidisciplinary Programs: Educational                     Outcomes, BOK’s, and AccreditationEngineering professions and professional societies develop Bodies of Knowledge (BOKs) orsimilar documents to define the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to successfully enterprofessional practice. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) was an early leader inBOKs, releasing their first BOK in 2004. ASCE released their BOK II in 2008 and is dedicatedto updating their BOK to reflect changes in the profession. BOK’s are used by professionalsocieties to inform and develop ABET accreditation standards for engineering education.Therefore, they also have direct influence on how collegiate engineering curricula are developedand assessed.Over the past 30 years, many university departments of Civil Engineering have expanded andfrequently support multiple degrees. Such departments must consider multiple BOKs (orequivalent documents/principles) when developing their curricula, educational programoutcomes, and assessment plans. The University of Alabama is a perfect example of thechallenges facing many civil engineering programs across the United States. The University ofAlabama has offered degrees in Civil Engineering since 1837, and now offers four degrees in theDepartment of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering (CCEE): B.S. CivilEngineering, B.S. Construction Engineering, B.S. in Environmental Engineering, and a B.S. inArchitectural Engineering. The department has gone through two cycles of accreditation with 2degrees and is preparing for a first visit for the new environmental and architectural engineeringdegrees. The UA CCEE department has developed a single, multi-disciplinary set of outcomessupporting all four degree programs. We based our unified set of outcomes on Civil EngineeringABET criteria and ASCE’s BOK and supplemented these with criteria, BOKs, and similardocuments from other societies, most notably using NSPE’s Engineering BOK and AAEES’sEnvironmental Engineering BOK.As Civil Engineering departments continue to evolve into multi-disciplinary sustainableinfrastructure programs, we believe a new vision for a multi-disciplinary BOK is needed. Thetransition from discipline focused objectives to multi-disciplinary objectives presents significantchallenges to academic departments. This is especially true given that each degree program willbe separately accredited using what is likely to be a single disciplined approach.While a complete vision for a new multi-discipline BOK is beyond the scope of this work, wewill present some characteristics of such a vision. We recommend characteristics of a new civilengineering discipline BOK that will support a multi-disciplinary infrastructure BOK. Severallessons will be presented from UA’s experience in developing a four program, single set ofoutcomes. The unified outcomes required iteratively modifying discipline-specific outcomes toallow for a broader definition and application. It was necessary to provide a discipline specificdefinition of design in order to craft multidisciplinary design outcomes and to properly conveyhow we view design in each discipline or degree program. Such lessons are critical as anymultidisciplinary set of programs must pass through discipline specific accreditation. Webelieve that some of our lessons and experiences may be generalized and used to inform the nextgeneration multidisciplinary BOK vision as well as discipline-specific BOKs, such as ASCE’sBOK III."COORDINATING NOTE:This abstract is submitted at the specific invitation and request of Tom Lenox, the coordinator ofthe ASCE Liaison Committee's program for the CE Division of ASEE in 2015. It should beconsidered for inclusion in the session that Tom Lenox is organizing and moderating.”
AU  - Derek Guthrie Williamson
AU  - Kenneth J. Fridley
AU  - W.  Edward Back
CY  - Seattle, Washington
DA  - 2015/06/14
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - From Disciplinary to Multidisciplinary Programs: Educational Outcomes, BOK’s, and Accreditation
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/24139
DO  - 10.18260/p.24139
ER  -