Development of a classification scheme for “introduction to engineering” courses

“Introduction to Engineering” courses are often designed from scratch and can become a grab-bag of unrelated topics. They are often designed by instructors to cover what they feel is important. Therefore, while they may be prerequisites to second-year courses, first-year engineering programs are not necessarily integrated into the curriculum. Further, since they are often designed with little consideration for existing models, overall outcomes and content may vary widely. The results include an issue of course developers “reinventing the wheel” as successful models are not adequately disseminated. Results of multiple methods of investigation are presented. An analysis of syllabi for Introduction to Engineering courses identified course learning objectives, and these objectives were grouped to establish an initial classification scheme. A workshop in which objectives were discussed was held at a national conference and a separate draft classification scheme was proposed. A concurrent effort uses a Delphi procedure to define and categorize expected outcomes in first-year courses. Survey data from the Delphi study has been collected toward a single, final classification scheme. This paper will present results of the first two components of the study and the initial high level classification scheme identified as the Delphi analysis begins.