Continuing Education Using Professional Development Lectures

The Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Kansas has developed a series of lectures for practicing engineers. These have been named the “Professional Development Series.” The Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Kansas has conventional undergraduate and graduate programs. The Department offers Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D. degrees on the main campus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence. The Department also offers graduate courses on the Edwards Campus in Overland Park, Kansas, which is in the Kansas City metropolitan area, leading to various masters degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering. In addition to conventional degree programs, the Department offers, on a yearly basis, a series of one-day technical programs that are attended by practicing engineers. These programs have addressed a long-standing need for continuing education in the engineering community, but in recent years, engineers have requested a different form of continuing education than traditionally had been offered. There is a need for information to be available to all engineers, not just those seeking advanced degrees. The request has been for continuing education material that would be available in a single lecture format, rather than a semester-long format as is required for graduate courses. In response, the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Kansas has developed a series of technical lectures. Each of the lectures is two hours in length and is presented by a different faculty member. The lectures present an overview of various current aspects of civil and environmental engineering. The participants attending the lectures can select and attend only those lectures that are of help to them. This series of lectures is entitled the “Professional Development Series in Civil and Environmental Engineering.” This paper will present details of the Professional Development Series. Items discussed will be the content of the lectures, the benefits to the engineering community and the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, the manner in which the series was developed, and an assessment as to the success of the series.