Outcomes-based Design of a New Graduate Program
- Conference
- Location
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Tampa, Florida
- Publication Date
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June 15, 2019
- Start Date
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June 15, 2019
- End Date
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June 19, 2019
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Graduate Studies
- Page Count
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12
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--33150
- Permanent URL
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https://strategy.asee.org/33150
- Download Count
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365
Paper Authors
Ann D. Christy P.E.
Ohio State University
orcid.org/0000-0001-9172-0609
Ann D. Christy, PE, is a professor of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering and a professor of Engineering Education at the Ohio State University (OSU). She earned both her B.S. in agricultural engineering and M.S. in biomedical engineering at OSU, and her Ph.D. in environmental engineering at Clemson University. She worked for an engineering consulting firm before entering academia and continues to collaborate with the consulting industry. She has taught courses in bioenergy, biological engineering, capstone design, HVAC, thermodynamics, waste management, professional development, and engineering teaching. Her research interests include energy, the environment, and engineering education. She is assistant dean for teaching and learning in the College of Engineering. She is a second-generation woman engineer.
Teresa A. Johnson Ohio State University
Teresa A. Johnson, Ph.D. is an assistant director and the Coordinator for Assessment and Curriculum Design at the University Center for the Advancement of Teaching at The Ohio State University. She earned a doctorate in Microbial Ecology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has taught in the sciences at Butler University and at the College of Wooster. Her pedagogical research has focused on classroom assessment techniques and impacts of prior knowledge on student learning in the sciences. Her current interests are course and curriculum design, articulation of learning outcomes, and evaluation of teaching strategies.
Jeffrey E. Froyd
Ohio State University
orcid.org/0000-0002-4426-2681
Dr. Jeffrey E. Froyd is a Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at the Ohio State University, College Station. He received the B.S. degree in mathematics from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He was an Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. At Rose-Hulman, he co-created the Integrated, First-Year Curriculum in Science, Engineering and Mathematics, which was recognized in 1997 with a Hesburgh Award Certificate of Excellence. He served as Project Director a National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Education Coalition in which six institutions systematically renewed, assessed, and institutionalized innovative undergraduate engineering curricula. He has authored over 70 papers and offered over 30 workshops on faculty development, curricular change processes, curriculum redesign, and assessment. He has served as a program co-chair for three Frontiers in Education Conferences and the general chair for the 2009 conference. Prof. Froyd is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), an ABET Program Evaluator, a Senior Associate Editor for the Journal of Engineering Education, and an Associate Editor for the International Journal of STEM Education.
Deborah M. Grzybowski Ohio State University
Dr. Deborah Grzybowski is a Professor of Practice in the Department of Engineering Education and the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The Ohio State University. She received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and her B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on making engineering accessible to all students, including students with visual impairments, through the use of art-infused curriculum and models. Prior to becoming focused on student success and retention, her research interests included regulation of intracranial pressure and transport across the blood-brain barrier in addition to various ocular-cellular responses to fluid forces and the resulting implications in ocular pathologies.
David A. Delaine Ohio State University
Dr. David A. Delaine is an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University Department of Engineering Education. Within this newly formed department he strives to creatively impact engineering education and society through investigating community-based learning and its potential impact on students and communities. The goal of this research is to establish knowledge in how STEM CBL can support broadening participation and promote social justice and citizenship through evidence-based approaches.
Emily Dringenberg
Ohio State University
orcid.org/0000-0001-7635-7047
Dr. Dringenberg is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Ohio State University. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (Kansas State '08), a M.S. in Industrial Engineering (Purdue '14) and a Ph.D. in Engineering Education (Purdue ’15). Her team, Beliefs in Engineering Research Group (BERG) utilizes qualitative methods to explore beliefs in engineering. Her research has an overarching goal of leveraging engineering education research to shift the culture of engineering to be more realistic and inclusive. Dr. Dringenberg is also interested in neuroscience, growth mindset, engineering ethics, and race and gender in engineering. In general, she is always excited to learn new things and work with motivated individuals from diverse backgrounds to improve the experiences of people at any level in engineering education.
Krista M. Kecskemety Ohio State University
Krista Kecskemety is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. Krista received her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering at The Ohio State University in 2006 and received her M.S. from Ohio State in 2007. In 2012, Krista completed her Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering at Ohio State. Her engineering education research interests include investigating first-year engineering student experiences, faculty experiences, and the connection between the two.
Rachel Louis Kajfez
Ohio State University
orcid.org/0000-0001-9745-1921
Dr. Rachel Louis Kajfez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. She earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from Ohio State and earned her Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech. Her research interests focus on the intersection between motivation and identity of undergraduate and graduate students, first-year engineering programs, mixed methods research, and innovative approaches to teaching.
Ana M. Casado Ohio State University
Alan Kalish Ohio State University
Alan Kalish, Ph.D., Assistant Vice Provost, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Educational Studies, The Ohio State University, works to support faculty efforts on academic program assessment, implementation of a revised general education program, and institutional accreditation. He also oversees the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in University Teaching and chairs the Student Evaluation of Instruction Oversight Committee.
Previously, he directed the University Center for the Advancement of Teaching at Ohio State for 18 years, as well as founding the Center for Teaching and Learning at California State University, Sacramento, and servicing as associate director of Teaching Resources Center, Indiana University, Bloomington, where he earned his Ph.D. in English.
His research includes transitions from graduate school to faculty life, teaching and learning in higher education, and course and curriculum design. A leader on peer review of teaching, preparing future faculty, scholarship of teaching and learning, course and curriculum design, and assessing academic support units, he co-edited Teaching & Learning in the College Classroom, 3rd Ed. (2010), and Mapping the Range of Graduate Student Professional Development. (2012). Studies in Graduate and Professional Student Development 14. and has been PI or Co-PI on many grants, including U.S. Department of Education Fund for Improvement of Post-Secondary Education and Ohio Board of Regents.
Abstract
Backward design of academic courses is an evidence-based approach to building coherent assessable learning experiences. Backward design of curriculum is less often practiced, given that most academic programs pre-date publication of research on backward design. This paper describes a backward design process undertaken by a group of faculty at a large research university to develop a new graduate program leading to a PhD in engineering education. The initial design was developed over a 9 month-long process by members of the department’s graduate studies committee and guided by senior members of our university's teaching and learning center who worked with the proposal writing team as a learning community through all aspects of curriculum design and assessment planning. The curriculum design process engaged stakeholders and included creation of learning goals and outcomes; an open, collaborative communication and feedback strategy; in-person presentations at departmental, college, and university faculty meetings, and a presentation at the Ohio Department of Higher Education.
The program goals and learning outcomes describe what this department's faculty considers competence in engineering education, that the successful engineering education doctoral graduate will be able to: 1. Identify, discuss, and address critical issues facing engineering education in alignment with stakeholder needs, 2. Design, conduct, and critique research in engineering education, 3. Demonstrate, value, and apply engineering expertise, 4. Create, teach, and assess courses and curricula in engineering, and 5. Identify, demonstrate, and value appropriate personal and professional skills, mindsets, and traits.
The team developed program learning outcomes to support the five program goals and descriptions of three specific levels of proficiency (e.g., beginning, intermediate, and advanced) for each learning outcome. The levels of proficiency for each of the program learning outcomes were then mapped onto the required courses, electives, and other co-curricular program elements. The curricular map indicates the levels of proficiency in each of the learning outcomes that students are expected to achieve at different stages of their student career and where evaluations of proficiency will occur. Assessment of these learning outcomes within course assignments and during students' annual reviews provides ongoing feedback on students' developing competence in engineering education.
This paper describes lessons learned during the lengthy development, proposal, and approval process and also discusses the need to intentionally on-board new members of the community, including them in ongoing shared curricular improvement, and regularly revisiting the curricular map to ensure that courses are accomplishing what they were intended to accomplish. It is important that required adjustments are made as a community not by individual instructor fiat. We learned that backward design is not just about courses and curricula; it is, perhaps more importantly, about departmental culture.
Christy, A. D., & Johnson, T. A., & Froyd, J. E., & Grzybowski, D. M., & Delaine, D. A., & Dringenberg, E., & Kecskemety, K. M., & Kajfez, R. L., & Casado, A. M., & Kalish, A. (2019, June), Outcomes-based Design of a New Graduate Program Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--33150
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