98-72498 Shuman University of Pittsburgh - Engineering Education: Assessment Methodologies and Curricula Innovations This project addressees the crucial problem of how to best assure the engineering students receive a quality education, one that will enable them to make important contributions as professionals and citizens. In particular, the PI's will study how to evaluate engineering education programs, both for accreditation and to assess the increasing number of innovations that have resulted from almost a decade of NSF and private foundation funding. With the introduction of the "EC-2000" accreditation criteria, engineering programs now must develop and implement systems for continuous improvement. Faculty must demonstrate that the outcomes important to the mission of the institution and the objectives of the program are being met via sound measurement, and must give evidence that these results are applied to the further development and improvement of the program. It is proposed that many of these "improvements" can be adapted from the large volume of curricula innovations that have resulted from NSF sponsorship during the current decade. Consequently, it is equally important to assess a set of these innovations, particularly in terms of their educational value, reliability, implementation and maintenance costs, and ease of transportability to other institutional and/or programmatic settings. Thus the project focus is on the two areas of assessment: that of measuring outcomes and innovation. This will be done through a highly integrated effort involving a team of experienced engineering education researchers from six universities spanning four Coalitions (Foundation, Gateway, ESCEL, and SUCCEED). It also involves one NSF/NASA sponsored Model Institutions for Excellence (MIE) program (UTEP), a comprehensive, nationwide effort to upgrade the quality of science, engineering and mathematics (SEM) education. The multi-disciplinary team of Principal Investigators is collecti vely involved in engineering curricula innovation, assessment, and educational research. The results of the investigations in this project will be pooled. The project objectives are to: - Examine a comprehensive spectrum of assessment methodologies; - Better understand what each can offer engineering educators for outcome assessment; - Learn how each can best be adapted by the country's 1538 engineering programs; and - Apply these methodologies to certain educational innovations in order to both test their power as assessment tools and provide more insight into the efficacy of the assessed innovations.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
9872498
Program Officer
Sue Kemnitzer
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
1998-10-01
Budget End
2002-09-30
Support Year
Fiscal Year
1998
Total Cost
$1,082,790
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Pittsburgh
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Pittsburgh
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
15213