Designing and Assessing a Curriculum to Address Professional Learning Outcomes for Civil Engineering

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With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), this project aims to serve the national interest by enhancing the non-technical professional skills of civil engineering students. The project intends to accomplish this goal by developing Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET)-compliant course materials that promote sensitivity to the social and environmental implications of engineering design. The ability to design engineering products that have positive social and environmental impact is an essential engineering skill, especially for civil engineers who use their technical expertise to solve problems that have implications for real people. However, engineers are typically taught to think of the physical dimensions of problems in isolation from their social dimensions. This separation of physical and social considerations can lead to engineering projects that exacerbate inequality, ignore community questions and concerns, or fail to consider the consequences for communities. Curricula are needed to help students learn these professional skills and assessments are needed to measure the professional learning outcomes at the individual student level. This project addresses these needs by: (1) designing the Engineering Professional Skills curriculum for civil engineering courses; (2) building a simplified civil engineering professional skills assessment; and (3) implementing the Engineering Professional Skills curriculum in civil engineering courses and using the assessment to determine the effectiveness of the curriculum. Engineers need to think critically about who is included in the design process and to what social ends the project is aimed. Engineers who can do so are better prepared to respond to complex problems with significant social impacts. The proposed work is grounded in critical pedagogy literature as well as the socio-cultural theory of learning, addressing the social implications of power-based distribution of resources and the situation of learners as co-constructors of knowledge. The project plans to focus the professional skills curriculum on these ABET learning outcomes: the ability to apply engineering design with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors; the ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences; the ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities; and the ability to function effectively on a team. To assess these outcomes, the project will enhance a previously developed assessment tool for engineering professional skills to assess individual learning rather than group learning. This modification is expected to result in a better understanding of individual learning gains, independent of group dynamics. The new assessment tool, the Simplified Civil Engineering Professional Skills Assessment, will use a real-life, case study approach, providing students with examples of local, national, and international engineering projects. The curriculum and the associated assessment are expected to contribute to improving engineering education, thus contributing to a highly-qualified U.S. STEM workforce. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.