Technology and Design Programs

During the summer of 2016, visits were undertaken to six post-secondary academic institutions with programs in construction management, industrial design, information technology, manufacturing or mechanical engineering technology, and technology & engineering education. The purpose of these visits was to learn more about how they are structured, their history, their faculty, and other related items. This paper presents findings from these visits, in the areas of types of faculty, teaching loads, enrollment trends, local organization, placement, experiential learning, scholarship & scholarly productivity, industry experience, industry advisory boards, and program accreditation. Motivation The primary purpose of this study was to better understand programs in construction management, industrial design, information technology, manufacturing engineering technology, and technology and engineering education. Each of these programs are substantially different from each other, in history, culture, industry focus, and academic structure. Because of these substantial differences, it was the author’s intent to learn more about each program and as many related details as possible. Methodology The author serves as the Director of the School of Technology (SoT) at his institution of employment, Brigham Young University (Provo, UT). This SoT includes programs in construction and facilities management, industrial design, information technology, manufacturing engineering technology, and technology and engineering education. Accordingly, the author looked for and found six institutions with several or all of these same programs, or Table 1: Institutions and Programs in This Study close equivalents. Table 1 includes each of the institutions included in the study, some basic information about each institution, and the programs included in this study. Some of the data was gathered from the institutions’ websites, but most was gathered through personal visits with the heads or a faculty member in each of these programs. The visits were conducted in the summer of 2016, and consisted of going over a list of questions (same questions for each institution and program), taking notes on the responses, and compiling the information into some organized findings. Findings Enrollment It was found that enrollment was not a consistent theme across all programs. All programs were experiencing steady enrollment, and some institutions had experienced substantial increases in enrollment in some programs. None of the programs reported a substantial decrease in their enrollment.