Revision of a Graduate Program's Core Courses in Engineering Technology

Ali Alavizadeh

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Seattle, Washington
Publication Date: June 14, 2015
Start Date: June 14, 2015
End Date: June 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-50180-1
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Design and Assessment of Graduate Curriculum
Tagged Division: Graduate Studies
Page Count: 10
Page Numbers: 26.1342.1 - 26.1342.10
DOI: 10.18260/p.24679
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/24679
Download Count: 450

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Ali Alavizadeh Indiana University Purdue University, Fort Wayne

visit author page

Dr. Ali Alavizadeh is an Assistant Professor in the MCET Department at Indiana University-Purdue University (Fort Wayne, Indiana). He has taught at the George Washington University (Washington, DC), and Morehead State University (Morehead, KY) in the fields of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering and in Industrial and Engineering Technology, respectively. His industrial experiences include enterprise architecture, systems analysis, and software engineering for private, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations. His research interests include complex systems modeling and simulation and nonlinear dynamical systems, and their application in healthcare and aerospace.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

Redesign of graduate program in engineering technologyThis paper describes the rationale, details, and results of upgrading the core courses of a Masterof Science degree in technology to better address students’ needs and to streamline coursesequences and offering. The revised core courses, particularly, the course on researchmethodology, has been used since 2012 and the results will be detailed in this paper along with adiscussion on the feedbacks received from the students.The Master of Science in Technology is an interdisciplinary degree with two tracks: InformationTechnology, and Industrial Technology. The program consists of 33 credit hours, 9 hours ofwhich are core courses (Measurement and Evaluation in Industry and Technology-IT 507,Quality and Productivity in Industry and Technology-IT 508, and Analysis of Research inIndustry & Technology-TECH 646). In general, the goal of the core courses is to lay thefoundation that encompasses such areas as quality systems, statistics, and researchmethodologies. However, based on the author’s experience as both the instructor of two of thecore courses and the director of the graduate program, there are a few areas that requireimmediate attention such as: • Overlaps in covering statistics in both TECH 646 and other courses such as IT 508 and Advanced Quality Engineering Methods. • Less emphasis on qualitative methods, despite the fact that the degree is an interdisciplinary degree with students coming from a diverse background and career. • Unfamiliarity of a majority of students with the resources available to help them with their master’s directed projects, how to prepare the final report, and other similar issues. This is in particular, important since the majority of students are non-traditional (e.g., part-time students) who may have been out of academia for a number of years and therefore are not familiar with the expectations and degree requirements they need to be aware of. • Textbooks with less relevance to the scope and objectives of the core coursesAfter reviewing the syllabi of the core courses, as well as the overlapping courses, the authorsolicited graduate faculty’s feedback on the above-mentioned issues and compiled a summary oftheir feedback. All the information were used to revamp the core courses, in particular, TECH646. In addition, a new textbook was chosen based on the contents and its relevance for TECH646. The feedback received from the students indicates that the students have found the changesvery helpful in clarifying the expectations of the degree, the master’s directed projectrequirements, and the university resources for research endeavors.

Citation
Format

Alavizadeh, A. (2015, June), Revision of a Graduate Program's Core Courses in Engineering Technology Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.24679

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -              Redesign of graduate program in engineering technologyThis paper describes the rationale, details, and results of upgrading the core courses of a Masterof Science degree in technology to better address students’ needs and to streamline coursesequences and offering. The revised core courses, particularly, the course on researchmethodology, has been used since 2012 and the results will be detailed in this paper along with adiscussion on the feedbacks received from the students.The Master of Science in Technology is an interdisciplinary degree with two tracks: InformationTechnology, and Industrial Technology. The program consists of 33 credit hours, 9 hours ofwhich are core courses (Measurement and Evaluation in Industry and Technology-IT 507,Quality and Productivity in Industry and Technology-IT 508, and Analysis of Research inIndustry &amp; Technology-TECH 646). In general, the goal of the core courses is to lay thefoundation that encompasses such areas as quality systems, statistics, and researchmethodologies. However, based on the author’s experience as both the instructor of two of thecore courses and the director of the graduate program, there are a few areas that requireimmediate attention such as:   •   Overlaps in covering statistics in both TECH 646 and other courses such as IT 508 and       Advanced Quality Engineering Methods.   •   Less emphasis on qualitative methods, despite the fact that the degree is an       interdisciplinary degree with students coming from a diverse background and career.   •   Unfamiliarity of a majority of students with the resources available to help them with       their master’s directed projects, how to prepare the final report, and other similar issues.       This is in particular, important since the majority of students are non-traditional (e.g.,       part-time students) who may have been out of academia for a number of years and       therefore are not familiar with the expectations and degree requirements they need to be       aware of.   •   Textbooks with less relevance to the scope and objectives of the core coursesAfter reviewing the syllabi of the core courses, as well as the overlapping courses, the authorsolicited graduate faculty’s feedback on the above-mentioned issues and compiled a summary oftheir feedback. All the information were used to revamp the core courses, in particular, TECH646. In addition, a new textbook was chosen based on the contents and its relevance for TECH646. The feedback received from the students indicates that the students have found the changesvery helpful in clarifying the expectations of the degree, the master’s directed projectrequirements, and the university resources for research endeavors.
AU  - Ali Alavizadeh
CY  - Seattle, Washington
DA  - 2015/06/14
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Revision of a Graduate Program's Core Courses in Engineering Technology
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/24679
DO  - 10.18260/p.24679
ER  -