Abstract

This work-in-progress (WIP) paper begins to 1) describe the transformation of a School of Engineering Technology (SoET) gateway experience and 2) explore students’ outcomes and perceptions in the general areas of preparedness for success, satisfaction, learning preference, and competency development. In the Fall of 2022, the SoET gateway experience was transformed from two unintegrated/decoupled courses to a single course, based in part on observational problems with course design, curriculum, instructional methods, grading, assessments, integration, and documentation. Overall course objectives aimed to introduce students to foundational engineering technology (ET) knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) needed for success in future SoET courses remained unchanged. Transformational elements included the refinement and expansion of learning outcomes, prioritization of instructional scaffolding, incorporation of stakeholder input, full integration of a learning management (LMS), new instructional methods, and the creation of a significant amount of new curriculum that covered a breadth of ET topics (e.g., electrical, industrial, manufacturing, and mechanical). This paper reports on a single cohort of twenty-seven Purdue Polytechnic New Albany students who voluntarily completed an end-of-semester anonymous three-part online survey analyzing their demographics, perceptions, and the extent to which they believe they had or had not made progress in a variety of engineering related competencies (i.e., cluster of related KSAs). Twenty five (92.59%) students agreed that the new gateway course had prepared them for future academic success in their selected major(s) (59.26% strongly agreed), but results show an imbalance of perceived preparation across all engineering-disciplines. Multiple course elements (e.g., modality, structure, depth, breadth, etc.) were perceived to be satisfactory and results show favor for lab-based learning over project-based learning (PBL). Finally, results indicate positive self-reported progress in four general competency areas: design, problem-solving, communication, and group/teamwork. A second cohort will take the transformed gateway experience in the Fall of 2024 to strengthen the overall sample power, and data from the four years (Fall 2018-2022) preceding the transformation will be collected and analyzed in comparison to groups involved in the revised course.

Comments

This is the publisher PDF of Webster, R., & Turner, M., & Newell, B. (2023, December), Work-in-Progress: Transformation of a School of Engineering Technology Gateway Experience Paper presented at 2023 IL-IN Section Conference, Edwardsville, IL. https://peer.asee.org/45097

© 2023 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference.

The version of record is available at DOI: 10.18260/1-2-1130-45097.

Keywords

Engineering Technology (ET), Gateway, First-year, Competency, Freshman

Date of this Version

4-1-2023

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