Independent Learner Energy Education Design Project

The Lane Community College (LCC) Energy Management Program (EMP) has a long and rich history of preparing students for jobs in the commercial building energy efficiency workforce. While LCC EMP has produced many graduates who are employed throughout the energy efficiency industry, the projected demand for energy efficiency education continuous to grow. Further, while online degrees are fairly commonplace in many sectors of higher education, career-technical education lags behind in part due to the hands-on fieldwork requirements of such programs. Motivated by the demand for an energy management workforce, this project brings together the LCC EMP education with online education. The result being the Independent Learner Energy Education Design (ILEED) effort, which provides a scalable solution of changing the current LCC EMP traditional classroom model into an online hybrid option that expands energy efficiency educational opportunities to traditional and nontraditional students, but also a broader and more diverse population across the Pacific Northwest. This project also serves to develop, manage, and support a network of utility mentor partners that will provide the essential energy-related fieldwork at multiple remote locations. Northwest utilities and utility professional associations have agreed to provide employee-mentors for this innovative education project.

To increase participation of a wider sector of potential students, and to cover a broader geographic range, ILEED updates the existing online coursework and couples it with fieldwork experiences through local, public utilities and industry connections (similar to that of an internship or cooperative education). With this model of higher education and industry partnerships, energy management education will be available to students who are currently outside the local area. ILEED faculty will still teach and assess, but also coordinate with industry mentors so ILEED students can complete their field-work component of instruction, regardless of their geographic location. Students who participate will be able to earn a full, two-year Associate of Applied Science degree through the online offerings, or an incumbent worker could choose to take a few classes to augment their current profession (e.g., architects, engineers).