98-12928 Morell University of Puerto Rico Mayag ez - The Learning Factory: Implementing ABET 2000 A Hands-On Workshop The Manufacturing Engineering Education Partnership (MEEP) has developed and implemented a new curriculum in design and manufacturing with integrated laboratory facilities in strong collaboration with industry. This effort is called the Learning Factory Program, an outcomes-driven program that has been successfully institutionalized at Penn State University, University of Washington and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayag ez. The purpose of this project is to extend and disseminate this program through the offering of four 1/2 to 1 day long workshops at national engineering education conferences. The goal is to share the Learning Factory Program as a strategy to comply with ABET 2000 Criteria. Basically, this workshop will go through the following steps in education reform: from the establishment of educational objectives to planning (resources, timetable, responsibilities) to curriculum development (courses, integrated laboratory facilities, industry collaboration), and finally to outcomes assessment (designing the assessment strategy, conducting assessment, design of tools, reporting and feedback). The workshop is designed for 25-40 participants. The first part of the workshop will be dedicated to presenting a general overview of the Learning Factory Program and the process of developing an outcomes-based curriculum. It also presents the Learning Factory Program as a strategy to comply with ABET 2000 Criteria. The second part will be devoted to describing the curriculum, courses, integrated laboratory facilities and industry advisory board. The third part will address assessment strategies to evaluate student learning outcomes and program goals. The workshop presentation strategy will be as follows: After a short presentation, teams of participants will break out to discuss the topic presented and come up with their ideas on how to adopt or adapt the sp ecific topic at their institutions. When reconvening, each team will share their ideas with the rest. Participants will have the opportunity to work on their perception as to what are the stakeholders needs, develop a strategy to address those needs, and develop an assessment scheme. These exercises will help them in their institution's developments to address ABET 2000.
