3 Year Fipse Project: Developing A Corporate Feedback System For Use In Curricular Reform

The University of Cincinnati has been awarded a US Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education [FIPSE] grant to be used for the Development of a Corporate Feedback System for Use in Curricular Reform. The duration of the grant is three years during which the University is scheduled to receive a total of $ 555,133 (57%). The matching contribution of the University of Cincinnati will be $421,396 (43%). Including matching funds the University of Cincinnati will be investing $ 0.976 M in industry integrated curriculum development. The objective of the grant is to build a closed loop system that measures student performance while on co-op and directs this feedback into curricular development. This project develops methodologies to use assessment data of student work term performance in curricular development, thereby continuously aligning experientialor cooperative-education based curricula with industrial needs. The proposed three-year project would focus on: a) identifying curricular activities exhibiting a strong correlation with student co-op work performance; b) designing and implementing processes allowing the systematic use of employer assessment in curriculum design; c) evaluating the impact of changes in curricular design upon student work performance; d) piloting and contrasting projects in both different academic fields and at different colleges; and e) developing a set of best practices to be used for further refinement and dissemination of the process. Initial collaborators include University of Cincinnati (UC) academic units as follows: the Department of Architecture (College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning); the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (College of Engineering); the Department of Civil and Construction Management (College of Applied Science); the College of Business Administration; and the Division of Professional Practice. The assessment data will be analyzed by the UC Evaluation Services Center. The Evaluation and Assessment Center for Mathematics and Science Education at Miami University will act as the external evaluator for the project. Schools accredited by, or subscribing to, the attributes of the Accreditation Council for Cooperative Education will act as a reference group, ensuring a transferable end process. The ultimate goal of the project is to move schools engaged in cooperative education to a new era of market alignment. The objective is to build feedback structures that keep the schools abreast of a rapidly-changing environment. The inclusion of a wide array of programs and a large, diverse reference group caters to building a process that can be effectively utilized in schools engaged in cooperative education within a diverse set of academic fields and educational levels. The Grant was filed by Cheryl Cates as PI and Kettil Cedercreutz as co-PI in a joint effort with the Accreditation Council for Cooperative Education. The three year pilot program will involve the Departments of Architecture (Prof. Anton Harfmann, College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning) , Civil Engineering (Prof. Richard Miller, College of Engineering), Construction Management (Prof. Benjamin Uwakweh, College of Applied Science) and the College of Business (Prof. Marianne Lewis, College of Business). Project Liaisons from the Accreditation Council for Cooperative Education (ACCE) include Professional Practice Executive Director Tom Akins from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Dr. Luther Epting from Mississippi State University. Index Terms – University of Cincinnati, ACCE, co-op, curricular development, corporate feedback ABET, co-op performance data, assessment, FIPSE, grant FUND FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION (FIPSE) The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) is administered by an office of the U.S. Department of Education with the purpose of supporting solutions that are meaningful and lasting to problems in postsecondary education. FIPSE awards grants for innovative educational reform ideas then shares the proven lessons with the larger educational community. FIPSE grants fund initiatives that have potential for national significance in resolving problems in postsecondary education. FIPSE grants are comprehensive and action oriented in that they focus on innovative ideas rather than basic research and they address a variety of problems at a wide range of institutions. FIPSE is bold in its resolve to support unproven as well as proven ideas. The University of Cincinnati was awarded a FIPSE grant in 2004 to develop a corporate feedback system for use in curricular reform. PROBLEM AND PROPOSED SOLUTION The problem of matching curricular content with industrial needs has been, both nationally and internationally, approached on a variety of levels. The cooperative education paradigm has however been relatively successful when striving to combine industrial and scientific values. Co-op has in many instances made a single organization very competitive both with regards to its contribution to science, as well as with regards to its ability to integrate theory and practice. The University of Cincinnati (UC), the first university to introduce cooperative education in 1906 at the urging of Dean Herman Schneider, is a good representative of institutions in this category. Schneider, a contemporary of John Dewey, developed cooperative education to form a bridge between classroom theory and Page 1.6.1 “Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright ©2005, American Society for Engineering Education industry practice. During its 100-year development, the concept has grown to become an underpinning of experiential learning programs worldwide. Accountability concerns have created a focus on practical learning outcomes deemed important by industry. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) 2000 Criteria, developed in the late 1990’s, strongly emphasize an understanding of market needs. Measurement, feedback and continuous improvement form corner stones of the ABET 2000 philosophy. The thinking behind the criteria is largely based on the logistic concepts developed by Dr. E. Deming that revolutionized the manufacture of consumer goods during the last quarter of the 20 century. The establishment of ABET 2000 criteria constitutes a major step in the market orientation of the educational industry. The objectives are bold yet the fact that an educational institution represents a true multivariable system produces many challenges. Rightsizing the feedback information constitutes one major challenge; the sufficient level of processing of this information constitutes another. It is clear that this new market oriented approach is generating a debate that will likely shape every aspect of how universities operate. The challenge is to develop governance structures that allow a market adaptation, without encroachment on academic freedom and integrity. Advances in information technology, the negligible price of telecommunications, and historically low transportation costs have resulted in shorter technology and methodology development cycles combined with ever increasing globalization. In this scene of rapid advancement of the workplace, the interaction between academia and industry inherent in cooperative education forms an asset that has a strong influence on the competitiveness and wealth of a community. Conclusively a modern curriculum can only be planned with regards to its composition. The actual content, especially the focus on applications, should be executed as an interactive process between the university and its stakeholders. With baccalaureate program through-put times at four to five years the work setting typically undergoes radical shifts between the time when any program is planned and the time the first student graduates. The significance of the project described in this paper converges upon further bridging the gap between academia and industry, which is increasingly important in today’s rapidly changing industrial environment. The University of Cincinnati is one of very few institutions to combine high impact research with a strong professional profile. With a research budget that exceeds $300 million and the largest and most diverse population of cooperative education students at any public institution in the United States, UC is in a unique position to provide an original solution to this national and international problem. CO-OP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI The structure of the UC co-op program is based upon full-time, alternating quarters of study and co-op starting in the sophomore year and extending over three years. This format makes the realization of a bachelor’s degree at UC a five-year endeavor. Students must complete a minimum of four co-op quarters, although the majority of students complete six co-op quarters. Students are also required to remain with an employer for a minimum of two quarters in order to provide a realistic depth of experience with that particular employer. Figure 1 shows a typical alternating University of Cincinnati co-op curriculum. Every co-op work quarter is evaluated through a three-party assessment process: by the student, by the employer, and by the faculty member. This alternation paces the development of the student’s frame of reference with the advancement of the curriculum. Employers are able to assign co-ops to significant positions due to the alternating structure, as these positions can be filled by students on a year-round basis. FIGURE 1, STRUCTURE OF TYPICAL UC CO-OP CURRICULUM