Implementation And Assessment Of Industrial Engineering Curriculum Reform

We describe a curriculum reform project that aims to improve the industrial engineering curriculum through a web-based learning environment that engages students in active and collaborative learning. This environment focuses on engineering problems solving, increased information technology content, and the higher order cognitive skills that are needed to be a successful engineering problem solver. We describe the status of this project, which has been implemented in two courses: an engineering economy course and a manufacturing systems engineering course. One of the objectives of this new environment is integration of the curriculum, and we discuss how links were created between these two courses to highlight connections between the course contents, and how this results in rethinking and improvements of the existing curriculum. We also show how the environment encourages development of engineering problem solving skills, as well as the basic cognitive skills needed. Finally, we discuss our assessment of the new learning environment, how it has been received by students, and how it is improving learning for industrial engineering students.