Comparing Perceptions of Competency Knowledge Development in Systems Engineering Curriculum: A Case Study

According to the Systems Engineering (SE) Division of the National Defense Industrial Association, one of the top five systems engineering issues for the Department of the Defense (DoD) is: “The quantity and quality of systems engineering expertise is insufficient to meet the demands of the government and defense industry.” The growing gap between the numbers of existing versus needed systems engineering experts has caused numerous institutions to develop systems engineering competency models to guide workforce development. Academia has responded by incorporating existing systems engineering competency models into the curriculum development process for establishing learning objectives, identifying gaps in existing course content, and validating student progress. However, based on the outcomes of two recent surveys, varying perceptions of systems engineering competencies presents a new challenge to the curriculum development and validation process. This paper summarizes related findings from an analysis of surveys distributed to instructors and students of 27 online courses in systems engineering and related topics in the Spring 2010 semester. The surveys were administered in support of doctoral research. These findings indicate that instructor and student perceptions of the type of systems engineering competencies addressed within the course differ, even within the same class. Detailed comparisons involving eight competencies that are grouped into 1) Concepts and Architecture and 2) System Design are provided as examples. The paper provides a summary of the online pedagogy used by the each instructor to teach and discuss the course content in the classes researched and summarizes related research data on student age, gender, and years of professional and systems engineering experience. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research and a summary of observations based on the findings.