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Responding to the Call: Extending the University Relationship via Continuing Education

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Conference

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

San Antonio, Texas

Publication Date

June 10, 2012

Start Date

June 10, 2012

End Date

June 13, 2012

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Engineering Professional Development and Distance Learning Programs

Tagged Division

Continuing Professional Development

Page Count

12

Page Numbers

25.1124.1 - 25.1124.12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--21881

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/21881

Download Count

415

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Paper Authors

biography

Craig G. Downing Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

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Craig G. Downing is the Interim Department Head of Engineering Management with responsibility for Continuing and Professional studies at Rose-Hulman of Institute of Technology. Prior to that, his teachings assignments focused on delivering graduate-level instruction in the operational and quality aspects of engineering management. Downing has more than 15 years of experience providing instruction in the areas of manufacturing, management, and mathematics at the post-secondary level. Additionally, he has amassed 13 years of industrial experience, four years as a Process Engineer, and nine years as a private consultant and researcher. His interests are rooted in industrial-academic relationships, quality management system development, and production/operations management. He is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt.

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Abstract

Responding to the Call: Extending the Rose-Hulman Relationship via Continuing Education Craig G Downing Rose-Hulman Institute of TechnologyAbstractIn August 2010, State legislation passed the Continuing Education Rule, requiring Indiana ProfessionalEngineers possessing active certificates to complete thirty (30) hours of continuing education whichmeets the requirements of Indiana Code 25-1-4 in order to renew his or her Professional Engineerregistration. In addition, the legislation stipulated that continuing education acquired every bienniummust include at least one hour of instruction on the topics of Ethics and Indiana Statutes and Rulesapplicable to the practice of Professional Engineering (PE). During the fall of 2011, in response to alumniwanting to satisfy the new Indiana law, the Department of Engineering Management (EMGT) at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (RHIT) began offering a short course entitled Engineering Ethics: AnOverview of Ethics and Indiana Statutes and Rules for Professional Engineers. This response to a specificniche in the legislation spawned a greater opportunity for Engineering Management to address thebroader issue of lifelong learning for engineers in the state of Indiana. The initial evaluations for theEthics course indicated a strong demand for greater instructional opportunities beyond the need tosatisfy their continuing education requirements. Since then, program offerings have grown to match thedemand, and the length of engagement now ranges between 2 hours and 36 hours of instruction. Toeffectively manage the current course offerings and engage the growth potential, EngineeringManagement created the Continuing and Professional Studies (CPS) unit. As of the writing of thisabstract, over 450 professional engineers have engaged in one or more of the 30 continuing educationcourses offered by the CPS unit of Engineering Management. Courses are open to the public and are notrestricted solely to professional engineers. Our courses are offered on campus, off campus, and on-site(in-house) for those companies wanting to provide customized or private training to a significantnumber of their engineers.This paper will outline the establishment of the Continuing and Professional Studies unit at Rose-HulmanInstitute of Technology. To this end, issues pertaining to business development practices, organizationalarchitecture, financial models, marketing/advertising, challenges and opportunities of corporate on-siteprograms, and the outlook for future opportunities will be addressed. Additionally, the author willdiscuss how quick response assessment techniques are employed to assist our continuous improvementpractices and evaluate participant satisfaction by analyzing factors such as degree of achievement of thecourse objectives, learning environment, instructional practices, content relevance, subject matterexpertise, and teaching ability of the course instructors.

Downing, C. G. (2012, June), Responding to the Call: Extending the University Relationship via Continuing Education Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21881

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