Course And Syllabus Change To Incorporate Aspects Of Diversity In Engineering And Engineering Technology Courses

An initiative in the Civil Engineering Technology (CET) department involving the re-design of the transportation course, to be more inclusive in terms of diversity, has been undertaken at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (UPJ). The initiative was in response to the recently developed UPJ diversity statement urging faculty to find opportunities within the curriculum to address diversity. The idea of course transformation was initiated in a two-week faculty diversity seminar sponsored by the office of the Provost at the University of Pittsburgh. The mission of the seminar was to provide an experience that will assist faculty in making their courses more inclusive in terms of diversity both in content and pedagogy. This paper describes the pedagogical aspects of developing and teaching a course in transportation to reflect aspects of diversity and diverse perspectives. The paper discusses efforts by UPJ to address diversity issues and the mission of the recently organized faculty diversity seminar. The focus of the paper is on course transformation and implementation. Course outcomes, syllabus and sample assignments are also discussed. Finally, feedback from students is presented and discussed. The experience gained from the course re-design process may provide useful guidance to those considering ways to update existing courses in engineering or engineering technology to address diversity issues.