Minors as a Means of Developing Technological and Engineering Literacy for Non-engineers

It is widely acknowledged that all Americans would benefit from a greater understanding of technology and engineering crucial for daily life. Achievement of this goal has been impeded by the lengthy and highly-sequenced nature of the engineering major. The work reported here aims to develop minors or certificates to be offered by engineering departments as an approach to developing technological competence in non-engineers. Minors or certificates also a subject to be pursed to some degree of depth and provide a recognized credential deemed attractive by many students. A collaboration between Iowa State University, Ohio State University, Hope College, and Rice University is developing concepts and resources to support model engineering minors or certificates which can be adopted efficiently and widely by other school. This collaboration developed a set of Technological Literacy Outcomes for such a minor. These outcomes are similar in approach to the ABET a-k outcomes that are used for engineering degrees, but focus on developing broadly technologically literate citizens. A standard set of outcomes rather than a prescribed series of courses, allows flexibility for institutions to develop minors or certificates that are best suited to its local conditions. Results are also reported from surveys of non-engineering students regarding factors influencing potential interest in engineering literacy minors or certificates. Data obtained from potential employers regarding their perception of the value of engineering-literacy minors generally favors such minors as a desirable set of abilities valued by potential employers.