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Session 2630

Using Course Materials to Change Teaching Methodology

John T. Demel, Robert J. Gustafson, John A. Merrill, Richard J. Freuler - First-Year Engineering Program / Kathy A. Harper - Faculty and Teaching Associate Development

The Ohio State University

Abstract

As part of the restructuring in Ohio State’s College of Engineering, a new unit called the First- Year Engineering Program (FEP) was created between 1994 and 1998. The Program provides engineering instruction for new first-year students (~1000 students) and transfer students (~130 students). The Program is led by the Associate Dean and has two faculty members, a staff of six, and purchases the teaching services of Engineering faculty from their home departments on a release time basis. In order to prepare the faculty members and other members of the teaching team to teach in the FEP, the leadership and staff provide training and education. This paper covers some of the unique features of this Program, particularly those that deal with teaching personnel preparation and the use of collaborative learning. It documents the changing culture in the Program and the College.

Introduction and Background

Description of the Previous and Current First-Year Organizations – From the 1874 until 1994, the education of the first-year engineering students at Ohio State was handled by the Department of Engineering Graphics (EG). This department of tenured and tenure-track faculty devoted their teaching activities to the first-year students. These EG faculty members had expertise in engineering graphics, CAD, and computer programming. Almost all had industrial experience and thus provided the students with information about engineering in the real world. With the re- organization of the College of Engineering in 1994, the EG Department was merged with the Department of Civil Engineering and a new organization was created for teaching the first-year students. This organization is called the First-Year Engineering Program (FEP) and reports to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Student Services.

FEP has permanent staff including two full time faculty members but hires most of the faculty (on a release time basis) from the degree-granting programs to do the teaching. The members of the staff include a Director who provides management of the graduate and undergraduate students and leads the assessment activities, a Faculty Coordinator who helps recruit and work with the faculty and provides mentoring and technical expertise, an Honors Coordinator who coordinates with the Engineering, Math, and Physics faculty and provides mentoring and technical expertise for the FEH faculty, an information specialist who works with course materials and WebCT, an administrative assistant who handles personnel and purchasing, and two instructional laboratory supervisors.

Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright© 2003, American Society for Engineering Education

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Harper, K., & Gustafson, R. J., & Merrill, J., & Demel, J., & Freuler, R. (2003, June), Using Course Materials To Change Teaching Methodology Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--12074