Creating Synergistic Opportunities for Professional Adult Continuing Learners through Engineering and Technology Collaborations

The engineering and technology educational continuum was formalized in a 1955 report of the Committee on Evaluation of Engineering Education as part of the American Society of Engineering Education by then chair Linton Grinter. In the report there was the recognition of a dual, yet highly integrated educational continuum spanning the engineering-technology undergraduate and graduate curriculums. Based on this report, most college and universities went on to associate under a single college or school the disciplines of engineering and technology. The curriculums were evolved with a singular focus. As time passed, theoretical instruction became more prominent and some of these colleges and schools pushed the technology portion of the curriculum to the peripheral, others simply eliminated technology altogether. The College of Engineering’s Division of Engineering Professional Education (ProEd) and the College of Technology’s Center for Professional Studies in Technology and Applied Research (ProSTAR) share a common purpose, mission and vision. Underlying these is the fundamental premise that both serve the graduate educational needs of professional working adult learners in the STEM disciplines; this through credit and non-credit program offerings spanning the educational continuum of engineering and technology. Both organizations, ProEd and ProSTAR, recognize the similarities of their mission and shared purpose to provide learning opportunities to those in technical professions with careers in progress. To this end, and aside from common policies, procedures and practices, both organizations recognize the significant commonality premised on space (facilities, equipment), distance infrastructure (distance classrooms, capture and delivery mediums), and the engineering – technology educational continuum (professional short courses, business/industry educational continuum needs). This richness in overlap creates an unquestionable synergistic opportunity for efficiency gains and cost savings. While it is widely accepted the sharing of resources creates efficiency and subsequently lowers overall costs, the premise of this paper is solidly grounded in organizational design theory and practice. ProEd and ProSTAR, through collaboration, anticipate organizational cost avoidance and increased gross revenue through more efficient utilization of space, distance infrastructure and the engineering-technology educational continuum; therefore yielding increased net residual to the university, colleges, departments and faculty. In the spring of 2012, under the umbrella of a new President and renewed focus on being good stewards of taxpayer dollars and student tuition, two colleges opened discussions on collaboration. The manifestation of these many earlier discussions culminated in a more focused and targeted series of meetings to determine areas for collaboration and how that collaboration might look. Primary areas for collaboration, a result of these many meetings, centers on space, distance infrastructure and the engineering-technology educational continuum. This paper details the organizational platform for bringing two tier 1 research university colleges together for a common purpose; that being the continuing education of professional working adult learners.