A New Model of Project Based Learning
A new model for engineering education has been developed and funded. The model is 100% project based learning (PBL) where the students develop their own learning objectives. The projects are authentic needs contributed by collaborating industries. Students monitor the acquisition of 32 technical competencies and all of the design and professionalism competencies required of new practicing engineers. The reasons for the new model, description of the model, research supporting the model, methods for evaluating the model and its transportability are discussed. Factors that Motivated the Development of the Model Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future of the Field together with other recent research and reports on engineering education, make a compelling case for envisioning engineering education in a new way. Calls have come from the National Academy of Engineering, National Science Board, industry leaders, engineering education leaders, and others for a new model that will produce engineers who will meet the challenges of today and tomorrow to keep the United States competitive in an increasingly competitive global economy. This same call is made with the statement that the current model for engineering education will not meet the needs of tomorrow and that change has always been part of engineering education as it has risen to new challenges. Despite these calls, which have resonated throughout engineering education, there seems to be little movement towards change in mainstream engineering education. The developers of this new program were given the unique opportunity to design and implement a model aimed at meeting these calls for improvement. History The prime movers for the development of this model are engineering faculty who were dissatisfied with the response of academia to the calls for change in engineering education. They saw barriers to change being rooted in the department and college cultures. With this design constraint, they sought to create, from scratch, a new private institution where they would be unconstrained by legacy policies and non believers. For five years, 2003 to 2008, they met to design a new model and seek funding. Unfortunately, inquiries to funding agencies, both governmental and private, were fruitless. The organizing group was running out of momentum when a publicly funded opportunity arose. In northeastern Minnesota there is an ore deposit mined by several mining companies. A regional governing agency is tasked with planning for and allocating the tax imposed on the mining companies for each ton of ore removed from the earth. In response to regional industry's need for a more educated workforce and in an effort to create economic development, the agency partnered with the organizers of this model and two public higher education institutions, a community college consortium and an ABET accredited state university to establish a new project based engineering curriculum. A curriculum whose educational objectives include preparing an engineer with the professional and technical skills needed to "create, develop, lead, and manage in a wide range of enterprises that result in sustainable and enhanced economic regional development through their disciplinary expertise." The agency is funding the program at approximately $1 million per year to educate entering cohorts of 25 students through the two year experience. Graduating engineers from the program are expected to have experiences that would provide them with the expertise to serve the industries of the region, contribute as entrepreneurs in the region, or leave the region and serve society in any of the capacities expected of engineers graduating at the nation's colleges. Minnesota State University Mankato and Itasca Community College are the institutions of higher education that have collaborated to develop and offer the Iron Range Engineering (IRE) program. Instructors at IRE are faculty members at Mankato and Itasca. The leadership of both institutions have paved the way for the program to begin. Description of IRE Model The Iron Range Engineering program is upper division, team oriented project based learning focused on industry contributed and industry mentored design projects. An innovative aspect of the program model is that student learning activities (both technical and professional) are centered around design projects offered by external organizations. While working on the projects, students have ownership in the selection of their competencies and in the design of learning objectives as well as learning activities. Students enter IRE after completing their lower division math, science, and engineering requirements. They are typically graduates of community colleges. Upper division curricula consist of four 15 credit semesters. Each semester, students complete 8 technical credits and 7 professional and design credits; however, there are no formal courses, in the sense that each course would have a different schedule of weekly meetings and that faculty members are assigned to teach separate courses. IRE students earn a Bachelors of Science in Engineering (BSE) Of the 32 technical credits, there are 8 mechanical core credits and 8 electrical core credits in which all students gain proficiency. For each of these 16 core technical credits (each referred to as a competency) students develop "personal models" to develop conceptual understanding of the basic fundamentals and general principles across the domain of the competency. Then, they undertake more in depth learning activities intended to develop expertise in a more focused area of their choosing within the competency. Roughly 70% of the time, these in depth learning activities occur within the context of their industry contributed, industry mentored project. This is how IRE applies project based learning (PBL) to its approach to teaching. In cases when the technical learning cannot be in the context of the project, another deep learning activity is chosen and executed. Typical activities include: (a) design or execution of Model Eliciting Activities (MEA) (b) student designed, conducted, and analyzed experiments; or (c) construction of an advanced computer program, e.g. expert system or simulation program. The remaining 16 technical credits are advanced topics beyond the core that address student interests or needs. If a student completes 12 credits in any area they can earn an "emphasis" Typical emphases areas are mechanical systems, thermal fluid systems, electrical systems, or biomedical. When a student selects an advanced or technical elective, their first task is to create the syllabus, which includes learning outcomes and objectives, learning activities, assessments, deliverables, and grading criteria. The completion of the syllabus is iterative processes with the faculty helping the student verify appropriate content and scope. The faculty sign final approval of the syllabus at the beginning of the learning process, acting as a contract for the semester's learning. In addition to the technical credits, each semester students can earn up to 7 credits for documented development in professional and design competencies. The specific competency areas are: design process, design deliverable, design communication, leadership and management, learning about learning, teamwork, communication, professional responsibility, and personal responsibility. Embedded in these competencies are ABET student outcomes a k plus two additional program specific outcomes in leadership/management and entrepreneurship. IRE faculty members create a new syllabus for the professionalism competencies each semester to provide for a wide variety of learning activities across the four semester curriculum. Student experience in a semester is as follows: Figure 1. Block diagram of semester learning experience for IRE students. Prior to the semester new project descriptions are made available to the students. They select preferences based on personal interest and management of their overall technical competency needs. Project assignments are made to best meet the needs of the student, the client, and the other students in the program. On the first day of the semester students assemble with their new team. (Students are given the opportunity to rank their project preference they usually get assigned to their first choice. Teams vary in size from 3 to 10. The first order of business is the development of a team contract a set of expectations and responsibilities that they believe are essential to the successful execution of their project. Within the next few days they meet with their industry client for a requirements capture and scoping process. As the students gain understanding of their project they select their 8 technical competencies for the semester some from the core areas and some from the advanced and elective areas. The goal is to select as many as possible that have direct connection to the industry project. For the next seven weeks students dedicate a minimum of 6 hours per day to their learning to develop expertise with respect to the 8 technical competencies and 2 4 hours per day in the ideation, research, modeling, and experimentation phases of their project. The goal of the learning for each competency is to progress from identifying fundamental knowledge and general principles to the development of personal models (such as concept maps, structure maps, and analogies) to the practice of closed ended fundamental of engineering type problems, to the starting of the execution of student designed deeper learning activities. Learning activities during these phases include "learning conversations" (daily scheduled 2 hour faculty led or student led active learning workshops) one on one faculty conversations, workshops by external experts such as practicing engineers, peer group learning, self guided research and learning, problem solving sessions, and reflection. Fi