Technological Education Initiative

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), partnering with several ATE Centers of Excellence, is conducting a series of hands-on regional faculty workshops to bring together technology program faculty to enhance their knowledge of "emerging technologies," explore ways in which these technologies may be incorporated in programs, and provide faculty with experience in developing effective assessment strategies that measure the impact of curricular innovation on the performance of their graduates. These workshops are providing tools for the development of programs that are innovative, relevant to emerging technologies, and attractive to students; thus, preparing graduates of technology programs to enter their careers with greater mobility and transitional capabilities. These workshops are also enhancing the faculty's technical professional development and providing them with a sound basis for assessing the quality of their curricular innovations.

Part I of the workshops is an exploration of emerging technology relevant to the future of technology graduates conducted by industry partners. Part II consists of sessions on developing educational programs based on continuous quality improvement methodology and outcomes based assessment. The workshops are being facilitated by engineering professionals experienced in implementing ABET's outcomes-based criteria -- Engineering Criteria 2000, consultants with expertise in assisting schools with assessment planning, industry representatives current in their company's continuous quality improvement efforts, key representatives for the NSF Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Centers, and members of ABET's Technology Accreditation Commission (TAC). Facilitators are motivating faculty to analyze different university and college missions and to develop programmatic objectives in light of those missions; determine specific outcomes to achieve those objectives; discuss ways to achieve those outcomes (such as curricular innovation) and decide how to measure the success of the actions taken. The workshops are producing case studies and examples highlighting different university and college missions and program objectives which can be used by faculty to develop program specific assessment plans to determine success of their curriculum reform and program innovation. Key features (and strengths) of this initiative are the active support and participation of industry and ATE Centers. This assures that the workshops address the most important issues facing industry and academia.

The workshops are being conducted over a three-year period at geographically dispersed locations chosen to provide ease of access to the nation's technology faculty. The workshops are open to faculty members from both non-accredited and ABET accredited technology programs. While offering tools for program innovation, these workshops also provide faculty the opportunity to enhance their own technical knowledge, thereby enriching their educational programs. Additionally, faculty benefit from networking with faculty from other institutions and programs to share best practices in curriculum improvement and techniques of incorporating new technologies in their programs.