Practicing Radical Innovation in Manufacturing Education

Additive manufacturing is an emerging advanced technological field that uses a set of technologies, such as 3D printing, to make products based on a digital model. Additive manufacturing is a valuable tool in many industries, including defense, aerospace, automotive, medical or dental, and metal manufacturing industries. Workers with skills in advanced technologies are in high demand in the nation's technical workforce. The inclusion of additive manufacturing in technical education programs helps prepare technicians to meet the demand. Effective instruction in this new technology requires careful consideration of best practices for course design and enhancing student learning. In this project, Green River Community College will update its manufacturing courses and adopt an instructional approach that lets students demonstrate the skills they have learned. The instructional approach involves experts from industry who judge how well students have mastered the skills for use on the job. The project will contribute to growing the STEM workforce by educating students for thriving technical careers in additive manufacturing. 

The goals of this project at Green River Community College are to enhance the instruction of future technicians and to produce diverse, well-qualified graduates for the STEM technical workforce. Project activities will include research-based practices such as industry-based curricula and authentic assessment. The project will: 1) Integrate core competencies in additive manufacturing identified by the National Resource Center for Materials Technology Education into existing courses; 2) Develop the long-term capacity of faculty to conduct, assess, and refine instruction in additive manufacturing; 3) Develop and test the effectiveness of authentic assessment models for continuous course and program improvement, so that instruction remains technically relevant with modern industry techniques, applications, equipment, and methods; and 4) Provide workshops on the use of the authentic assessment approach for faculty in other STEM technical programs. The project?s authentic assessment approach builds on a model developed and implemented by the Community Colleges of Spokane over the last fifteen years. The distinctive feature of this model is the integration of industry experts as volunteer examiners to ensure consistency between the assessment and the real-world applications for which students are being prepared. The project will also align the updated courses with the statewide, industry-based, Core Plus high school curriculum to promote pathways for students in this technology field. Results from the project will be widely disseminated with the aid of industry, educational, and state governmental partners.