Work in Progress: Professional Development Module in First-year Engineering Courses

Olukemi Akintewe; Jonathan Elliot Gaines; Anna Maria Bateman; Lynn Chisholm

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: First-year Programs: Professional Development and Skills
Tagged Division: First-Year Programs
Page Count: 11
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--35678
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/35678
Download Count: 503

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Paper Authors

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Olukemi Akintewe University of South Florida

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Dr. Olukemi Akintewe is an instructional faculty in the Medical Engineering Department at the University of South Florida. She received a B.E. degree in chemical engineering from City College of New York, CUNY, a M.Sc in materials science and engineering from the Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of South Florida. Dr. Akintewe's research focuses on project-based learning in engineering education; engineering predictive assessment models that supports students’ learning, classroom management techniques and best teaching practices.

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Jonathan Elliot Gaines University of South Florida

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Jonathan E. Gaines is faculty in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of South Florida. He is the Director of First Year Experiential Education and Learning. Through this position, he develops and implements the curriculum for USF's Foundations of Engineering Lab course. He is also the Principle Investigator for Bulls Engineering Youth Experience (Bulls-EYE Mentoring) a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math based outreach program that uses undergraduate students to mentor middle school youth.

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Anna Maria Bateman University of South Florida

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I am a second-year graduate student at the University of South Florida (USF) pursuing my Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction within the College Student Affairs program. As the Graduate Assistant for the Office of Internships and Career Readiness at USF, I hired, trained, and supervised the Career Readiness Badging Peers who are our Federal Work Study students within the office. I trained the students to grade, through the use of success rubrics and the ARISE model which was adapted from the RISE model created by Emily Wray from Full Sail University in conjunction with the COACH feedback method, student submissions within the Career Readiness Badging Program (CRBP). The CRBP is a platform on Canvas that allows students at USF to earn badges in association with the eight competencies the National Association of Colleges and Employers use to help define "career readiness" for college students.

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Lynn Chisholm University of South Florida

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Lynn Chisholm is the Director of the Office of Internships and Career Readiness at the University of South Florida, as well as Adjunct Faculty for the Florida State University Certified Public Manager program for workforce and leadership development. At USF, Lynn co-developed (with Peter Thorsett, MPA at USF) and administers the system-wide (NACE recognized, SoACE awarded) Career Readiness Badging Program, and supervises her team in providing High-Impact Practices experiential learning programming to USF’s 50,000+ students. Lynn has been academic faculty at FSU, UGA, and Polk State, and is now in administration at USF. She earned her bachelor’s degree at UCF, and her master’s degree at Boston University.

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Abstract

This Work in Progress paper describes the Professional Development (PD) module adopted in a first-year interdisciplinary engineering course at a research university in the southeast region. This paper reports the approach taken to incorporate professional development component into engineering students’ coursework. The PD module accounts for 16% of the total grade of a course in a first year foundations of engineering laboratory course which primarily focuses on teaching fundamental engineering design process. Three sequential assignments are required for the PD module of this 3-credit course with over 500 freshmen. The goal of the PD module is to prepare students for successful careers in engineering by developing both technical and soft skills. And importantly, for students to intentionally employ good principles that promote academic growth, achievement and success throughout their undergraduate experience. The PD module is carried out through enrollment in the institution’s Career Readiness Badging Program (CRBP). This program was developed to address the ascribed National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) eight competence skills that employers seek in students upon entering the workforce. These skills include Technology, Critical thinking, Global Citizenship, Teamwork, Career Management, Leadership, Professionalism and Communications. The PD module is divided into three sections: Learn it; Do it and Show it. The Learn it section utilizes skills acquired in workshops, coursework or training programs that demonstrates how a particular NACE skill was learned. The Do it portion consists of students completing an experience (i.e. volunteer, internship, job or student organizations) that requires the use of one self-identified essential skill. For the Show it assignment, students have to virtually document a time when the essential skill was used by employing the Situation-Task-Action-Result (STAR) behavioral interview method. Prior to participating in the CRBP, students identify their competencies, weakness and strengths after completing a worksheet with highlighted soft skills and technical skills that are required to execute the course projects. Students are then required to select one of the eight essential skills to work on for the PD module. Upon completion of the PD three assignments, students will earn a career badge that may be displayed on resumes and career management systems. It is anticipated that students will take advantage of the CRBP and aim to work on multiple essential skills that are necessary to prepare them for the work force before graduation. Managing the different skills learned by the large class size and providing adequate feedback could pose challenging in a 16-week course. Nevertheless, the ability to provide students with effective tools to acquire essential professional skills is crucial to developing the next generation of engineers who excel beyond college.

Citation
Format

Akintewe, O., & Gaines, J. E., & Bateman, A. M., & Chisholm, L. (2020, June), Work in Progress: Professional Development Module in First-year Engineering Courses Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--35678

TY - CPAPER
AB -
This Work in Progress paper describes the Professional Development (PD) module adopted in a first-year interdisciplinary engineering course at a research university in the southeast region. This paper reports the approach taken to incorporate professional development component into engineering students’ coursework. The PD module accounts for 16% of the total grade of a course in a first year foundations of engineering laboratory course which primarily focuses on teaching fundamental engineering design process. Three sequential assignments are required for the PD module of this 3-credit course with over 500 freshmen. The goal of the PD module is to prepare students for successful careers in engineering by developing both technical and soft skills. And importantly, for students to intentionally employ good principles that promote academic growth, achievement and success throughout their undergraduate experience.
The PD module is carried out through enrollment in the institution’s Career Readiness Badging Program (CRBP). This program was developed to address the ascribed National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) eight competence skills that employers seek in students upon entering the workforce. These skills include Technology, Critical thinking, Global Citizenship, Teamwork, Career Management, Leadership, Professionalism and Communications. The PD module is divided into three sections: Learn it; Do it and Show it. The Learn it section utilizes skills acquired in workshops, coursework or training programs that demonstrates how a particular NACE skill was learned. The Do it portion consists of students completing an experience (i.e. volunteer, internship, job or student organizations) that requires the use of one self-identified essential skill. For the Show it assignment, students have to virtually document a time when the essential skill was used by employing the Situation-Task-Action-Result (STAR) behavioral interview method. Prior to participating in the CRBP, students identify their competencies, weakness and strengths after completing a worksheet with highlighted soft skills and technical skills that are required to execute the course projects. Students are then required to select one of the eight essential skills to work on for the PD module. Upon completion of the PD three assignments, students will earn a career badge that may be displayed on resumes and career management systems.
It is anticipated that students will take advantage of the CRBP and aim to work on multiple essential skills that are necessary to prepare them for the work force before graduation. Managing the different skills learned by the large class size and providing adequate feedback could pose challenging in a 16-week course. Nevertheless, the ability to provide students with effective tools to acquire essential professional skills is crucial to developing the next generation of engineers who excel beyond college.

AU - Olukemi Akintewe
AU - Jonathan Elliot Gaines
AU - Anna Maria Bateman
AU - Lynn Chisholm
CY - Virtual On line
DA - 2020/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Work in Progress: Professional Development Module in First-year Engineering Courses
UR - https://peer.asee.org/35678
DO - 10.18260/1-2--35678
ER -