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Session 2542

Seminar In Engineering Management – Letting the Course Follow the Topic

William R. Peterson, Mercer University

Abstract

This paper chronicles an experiment in teaching a graduate level seminar in engineering management. In the experiment the students developed the syllabus details to include which subjects to address and the grading scheme. Thus the course addressed topics of interest to the students and for which they were in turn required to find appropriate reading and research material. At the conclusion of the course, a discussion of the way the course was conducted was used to reinforce the many of the concepts covered during the course.

Background

In the winter 2000 semester I was assigned to teach a graduate seminar in engineering management for the first time. I was at that time a tenure-track assistant professor in a startup manufacturing engineering department and was to teach this course for the industrial engineering department whose faculty did my tenure and promotion review.

The course is an elective in two overlapping master’s programs – one in industrial engineering and one in engineering management. The course was to be offered off-campus over a 12-week period. Each class was a three hour and twenty minute block that was to start at 6:00 PM. The catalog’s course description of the course was as follows:

“ISE 622 Industrial Supervision Seminar (3-0) 3 hrs An analysis of the writings, literature, and philosophy concerning line supervision and employee direction in manufacturing industries. Prerequisite: IME 600 or permission of the instructor”1

The course’s title had been changed to Engineering Management Seminar since the catalog was published and its description had been expanded to include advanced engineering management topics such as change management. The prerequisite course is titled “Concepts and Principles of Engineering Management” and is a required course in the engineering management program. Discussions with the professor who normally teaches both the course and its prerequisite, and who is the course coordinator, were very helpful. I was offered his reading packet for the course but was given the option to develop my own reading/reference material. We agreed that no specific topics needed to be covered during the course.

Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright 2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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Peterson, W. (2001, June), Seminar In Engineering Management Letting The Course Follow The Topic Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9765