Innovative Curriculum Development Partnering With An Industry Advisory Board To Evolve The Educational Process

This paper documents an ongoing process involving a comprehensive revision of the curriculum of the Structural Design and Construction Engineering Technology (SDCET) Program at the Pennsylvania State University. These curriculum innovations testify to the school’s dedication to continuous assessment, self-evaluation, and implementation of deliberate process improvements developed in concert with our constituencies. In an effort to make an already successful program even more responsive, the staff and faculty in conjunction with the Program Industry Advisory Board initiated a comprehensive program review and assessment. The paper presents the results of this evaluative process by recording the emerging short and long term initiatives designed to refine the fit of the program to the envisioned need of its constituents – students, the resident staff and faculty, alumni, employers, and the construction industry. The curriculum revisions will enhance program flexibility and work to maximize the degree of fit of the program to the talents and aspirations of the students to better meet the diverse needs of the industry they were destined to join. This paper discusses the transition from the current single-tracked curriculum into a program with three separate academic options – Structural Design, Construction Management, and General Engineering and provides a comparative analysis of the separate tracks.