Reengineering sooner civil engineering education

• Main Authors: Fink, L.D., Kolar, R.L., Muraleetharan, K.K., Nairn, R.W., Sabatini, D.A., Sack, R.L., Rhoads, T.R., Shirley, D.L.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Business communication; Civil engineering; Educational institutions; Engineering education; Explosions; Green products; Industrial engineering; Information technology; Marketing management; Technological innovation
• ISSN: 0190-5848; 2377-634X
• DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2000.897579

By reinventing the civil engineering educational system, we will be able to produce the master integrators of tomorrow. In addition to technical skills, we will imbue graduates with technical vision, business principles, marketing savvy, communications skills, leadership and management understanding. At the University of Oklahoma we are embarking on an ambitious curricular revolution that will transform what the students in the College of Engineering learn and how they learn it. The old paradigm mandates that students attend classes to accumulate the required number of credits to obtain a degree. We will replace that old culture with one in which students gain competencies through a variety of learning experiences: design and research projects; and off-campus internships, including participation in International projects. We will develop modules so that students learn new skills as they are needed within the design or research project, thus principles of "just-in-time" learning will be ubiquitous. While going through the curriculum, students will document and reflect on the meaning of what they are learning by creating a "Learning Portfolio," which will be one of the evidences of progress. Students will be charged with managing and taking responsibility for shaping their own education through active and higher level learning, all of which will develop lifelong learning skills.