| Since the beginning of
the Foundation Coalition (FC), we have envisioned an entirely new culture of engineering
education. In the early years our efforts were focused on transforming engineering
education on each of the partner campuses. 
| We then began to move beyond the original partner campuses.
In preparation for Year 9, we invited two new campuses, the University of Wisconsin
(UW) and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMD), to demonstrate that
our transformations could be shared and incorporated on other campuses. They both
have been able to serve as models for campuses wishing to use the experience and
expertise of the FC in a more expedient and less costly way. |
- UW has taken a leadership role in sharing these changes with other Big
Ten schools and learning from their experiments. Plans have been made for a conference
in May 2001 at which selected Big Ten schools will share their innovations and
plans for further innovations. In Year 9, UW envisions two additional conferences
to strengthen and expand the partnership.
- UMD has been active in disseminating
their results throughout the entire University of Massachusetts system. They recently
presented their experience with and results from the first-year curriculum renewal
to deans and department heads from the entire system. In addition, they have shared
their work with the complete engineering education community through conference
presentations and papers, most notably through an article in the Journal of
Engineering Education, "Improving First-Year Engineering Education," volume
90, no. 1, January 2001. The paper was also selected as one of the ten best papers
at the 1999 Frontiers in Education Conference.
In Year 7, even as these two
campuses were only midway through their transformation, we laid the groundwork,
in the form of a comprehensive marketing plan, to expand even further. The marketing
plan envisioned a four-part legacy: - Transformed curricula on each partner
campus with documentation, e.g., journal articles, conference proceedings, of
the transformation;
- Tools and materials that will help other campuses make
changes. These include one-page introductions to engage faculty members who are
unfamiliar with FC innovations, practitioner manuals to help faculty envision
how they might incorporate these innovations, workshops at which interested faculty
members can exchange practical classroom activities; and assessment instruments
and processes, targeted at EC2000 student outcomes, to estimate and document the
magnitude of the improvements.
- Methodologies through which faculty members
and campus leaders can facilitate change. The methodologies are built on current
research on curricular change, resistance and leadership, on the role of assessment
and evaluation in making and sustaining change, on change in commercial organizations;
and on an intensive study of curricular change on our own campuses.
- New partnerships
among institutions, which will help sustain improvement and encourage new initiatives
in a manner similar to the way individuals within a team spark and support each
other.
Year 8 has seen initial implementation of this marketing plan, with
the substantial results that have been described. This work will continue and
expand in Year 9, bringing us even closer to our vision of transforming engineering
education and leaving behind a legacy of which we can be proud.
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