The University of Tennessee Engage Program

9972944ParsonsThe Engage计划是田纳西大学第一年工程研究的成功和令人兴奋的新方法。 这个国家科学基金会项目将a）资助过渡费用，以将该计划从试点课程扩大到整个工程新生班，B）在该计划中增加教育增强和充实计划，c）允许将该过程扩展到本科课程的高年级，（d）有效地传播这些改革的进程，以其他大学和专科学校的支线计划。这一举措是一个全面的方法，教育从个人发展和社会化到新的第一年课程，该课程建立在NSF联盟过去八年所学到的教育课程的基础上。 该计划建立了一个与教师合作学习的环境作为导师，它整合了大一的主题，并通过应用教解决问题，它还解决了工程专业学生的保留率增加，重点是代表性不足的群体。 工程学院已经获得了教师的批准，正在实施这些变化的过程中。Engage计划是根据对所有部门教师的调查，学院顾问委员会的意见，指定的教师咨询委员会的意见以及在访问其他具有创新的第一年工程项目的机构时收集的信息制定的。 开发团队的中心目标是继续教授基本技能，同时找到解决问题的能力和设计方法沿着其他软技能，如团队合作和沟通技巧。 由此产生的程序集成五个基础工程课程（共13个学分）成两个团队授课的六小时课程。在参与计划的独特方面是工程新生村的概念。 该村庄将包括教室，计算机教室和计算机实验室，一个免费访问的动手实验室空间，一个团队设计项目工作区，一个单独的学习区，教师办公室和学生助理办公室，所有这些都位于一栋建筑物内。 Engage已经成功地完成了一个有60名学生的试点项目，结果非常积极。

9972944ParsonsThe Engage program is a successful and exciting new approach to first year engineering studies at the University of Tennessee. This National Science Foundation project will a) fund transition costs to scale the program up from pilot courses to the total engineering freshman class, b) add educational enhancements and enrichment programs to the plan, c) allow the expansion of the process to the upper years of the undergraduate curriculum, and d) effectively disseminate the process of these reforms to other universities and junior college feeder programs.This initiative is a comprehensive approach to the educational needs of entering freshmen, from personal development and socialization to a new first year curriculum that builds on the educational lessons learned in the last eight years by the NSF Coalitions. The program establishes an environment of collaborative learning with faculty as mentors, it integrates the subject matter of the freshman year and teaches problem solving by application, and it also addresses the increased retention of engineering students with an emphasis on under-represented groups. Faculty approval has already been obtained and the College of Engineering is in the process of implementing these changes.The Engage program was developed with input from a survey of faculty in all departments, comments from the College Board of Advisors, comments from an appointed Faculty Advisory Committee, and information gathered during visits to other institutions with innovative first-year engineering programs. The development team's central thrust was to continue to teach essential skills while finding techniques to address problem solving ability and design methodology along with additional soft skills such as teamwork and communication skills. The resulting program integrates five Basic Engineering courses (with a total of 13 credit hours) into two team-taught six-hour courses. Among the unique aspects of the Engage program is the concept of the Engineering FreshmanVillage. The village will include classrooms, computer classrooms and a computer lab, a free-access hands-on lab space, a team design-project work area, a separate study area, faculty offices,and student-assistant offices, all housed in a single building. Engage has successfully completed a pilot program with 60 students and the results were overwhelmingly positive.