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Engineering graduates require high-level cognitive abilities such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation to fulfill their obligations to society. But universities have not always been successful in developing such abilities. This paper questions whether engineering students in a civil engineering degree program at a university in South Africa are being adequately prepared to engage in higher-order cognitive activities such as reasoning, predicting, analyzing, and problem solving. The paper deploys the structure of the observed learning outcome (SOLO) taxonomy to classify assessment questions according to cognitive demand and compares first- and second-year students' abilities to deal with questions of varying cognitive complexity. The results show that the second-year cohort performed substantively better on questions requiring mathematical calculation but not in other question types. In fact, they performed slightly worse on high-cognitive-demand questions and substantially worse on questions requiring visual identification of problems. This may imply that the additional year of higher education serves to equip students with improved mathematical abilities but does little to enhance their ability to engage in high-cognitive-demand activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transportation engineering curricula at the undergraduate and graduate levels are critical to the development of technical competency in future transportation engineering professionals--those who will be responsible for the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of safe and efficient transportation systems. This paper provides an analytic review of journal articles and refereed conference papers addressing how transportation engineering curricula have changed over time. The literature review found 51 articles for analysis, with an increased frequency of those publications over time. Curriculum issues described in these papers include how transportation fits broadly within engineering programs and, more specifically, within civil engineering programs, which topics are addressed in transportation courses, and how these courses attend to stakeholder needs. This analytic review of the literature provides a resource for transportation engineering educators, administrators, and researchers to consider how transportation curricular issues have been treated in the literature historically as the community continues to develop and implement the transportation engineering curricula of the future. The findings will inform transportation engineering educators of the state of the practice in transportation engineering curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the research reported in this paper is to design and systematically assess the effectiveness of a collaborative contextaware mobile augmented reality tool (CAM-ART) in construction and civil engineering curriculum. To achieve this goal, an augmented reality (AR)-based information delivery tool, CAM-ART, was implemented in classroom-scale experiments to enhance traditional lecture- based instruction and information delivery methods. In the research reported in this paper, the contents of an ordinary textbook were enhanced using computer-generated three-dimensional (3D) objects and other virtual multimedia (e.g., sound, video, and graphs), and delivered to students through an AR application running on their smartphones or tablet computers. The sample consisted of construction and civil engineering students, who were randomly assigned to Group A (control group) and Group B (test group). The designed learning tool was tested in a collaborative and interactive environment, preperformance and postperformance data was collected, and student perception of using the AR-based tool was elicited through a feedback questionnaire. Data analysis showed that CAM-ART had a measurable and positive impact on students' learning both in short-term and long-term. Moreover, results of the feedback questionnaire indicated that students found CAM-ART to be an interesting, helpful, and motivational approach in the classroom that helped them gain more in-depth and long-lasting knowledge beyond what is normally expected from traditional lecture-based teaching methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The keys to capital facility project success are developing a sound project plan or schedule and then carrying out the project according to the plan. The construction industry, however, has major difficulties accomplishing schedule goals, and construction professionals struggle to develop reasonable baseline schedules. The objective of this paper is, by applying the industry-recognized schedule quality metrics to baseline schedules used for higher-education capital facility projects at the University of Texas at Austin, to understand the current quality of baseline schedule, identify problems, and provide recommendations for future higher-education capital facility projects. The evaluation results show that among 49 collected industry-recognized metrics, all the projects passed 27 metrics, with one project failing to pass all of the remaining 22 of the 49 metrics. The industry should pay particular attention to the following commonly occurring issues when developing a baseline schedule: (1) dividing up activities that exceed 30 working days; (2) creating or managing a schedule containing multiple lags; (3) initially using unique task names; (4) assigning at least one predecessor and successor to an activity or a milestone; and (5) developing a schedule mainly through a Finish to Start relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A successful civil engineering project is often a highly collaborative team-based activity, and the engineering education community must therefore prepare graduates to work in this type of environment. A large body of research has demonstrated the considerable benefits and minor organizational problems of collaborative work in higher education. However, there are only a few case studies reported in the literature that evaluate the positive and negative experiences encountered by students when undertaking group projects, and these invariably focus on first-year students. This paper contributes to this limited literature by assessing previously existing methodologies applied to group projects in the final year of an engineering degree, and compares the results with those obtained for students with no experience in collaborative work. The methodology was tested on a survey sample of 105 students enrolled in the Roads module of the new Civil and Territorial Engineering degree at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM). Although the results highlight the extremely positive effects of group projects on the students' perceptions, certain deficiencies were also detected relating to the lack of previous collaborative work in the students' background, an area which requires further research [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperative education (co-op) is a program in which participating students typically alternate between full-time study and paid full-time employment. Choosing to participate in a co-op program usually delays the student's graduation by up to one year, but may increase the student's job market prospects. This paper attempts to estimate the response of co-op participation to the engineering field-specific average wage for recent graduates. A relationship between wage growth, student ability, and co-op participation is investigated. Predictive modeling was performed using data obtained from the Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD), as well as the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES) Annual Report of Engineering Salaries. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with industry co-op representatives to address supply and demand related questions. The authors found that a $10,000 real increase in the average initial wage causes a 5.4% decrease in co-op program participation. In addition, there is hetero- geneity in the response by student ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ASCE Body of Knowledge and the ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission have emphasized a broad set of competencies required by 21st century civil engineers. In addition to competencies that are traditionally technical, these organizations recognize that professional competencies such as leadership, the ability to design sustainable systems, effective communication, and interdisciplinary teamwork are among the many skills required by engineers of the future. To develop and enhance all of these proficiencies within the undergraduate curriculum, there is a need to take an approach that interconnects all of these outcomes throughout the curriculum, or a "networked" approach. This paper discusses service learning as a potential approach for facilitating the broad set of foundational, technical, and professional learning outcomes cited by ASCE and ABET, by investigating two case studies within the Engineering Projects in Community Service program at Purdue University. The case studies are two service-learning projects from one large, multidisciplinary, vertically integrated student design team. One project focuses on sustainable and energy efficient housing for Habitat for Humanity (HFH) in Indiana, whereas the other project focuses on affordable houses for HFH in Haiti. The current analysis of these cases suggest that service-learning projects can provide a unique learning experience for the students to develop and synthesize the broad set of foundational, technical, and professional skills by integrating learning outcomes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the field of civil engineering evolves to address twenty-first century challenges, the demand for creative and innovative thinking rises. Engineering institutions around the nation have begun to integrate sustainability into the curriculum. Topics such as innovation and entrepreneurship are highly correlated with sustainability goals; however, many times they are viewed as market or management-driven principles. The Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (KEEN) Program was established to transform the U.S. workforce through equipping graduate engineers with an entrepreneurial mindset. This program is based on KEEN student outcomes (KSOs), which can be incorporated into department level, as well as course level, curricula. This paper focuses on the integration of KSOs into a senior civil engineering capstone course through two course activities over two years. KEEN rubrics are used to assess student achievement of the KSOs focused on innovative thinking and productive collaboration. The assessment results indicate that there are existing strengths as well as future opportunities to enhance student performance of innovative thinking and open-ended problem solving--skills that are essential to promoting sustainable design and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The launching of the European higher education area (EHEA) in 2010 has imposed new challenges on European universities. Traditional teaching methods, based on lectures and examinations, are no longer suited for the new EHEA educational approach, now focused on competences development. Instead, active learning methods as problem-based learning are far more appropriate. This paper examines the effect of a change to competence-based education through problem-based learning (PBL) in the field of structural engineering, carried out in a first year structures course. The structures program design is described with details of the PBL implementation. A program evaluation based on students' and faculty surveys is carried out. The evaluation results show that the program has been effective in the achievement of the proposed objectives. The benefits of the new approach include an increase in students' motivation and a better integration with other architecture disciplines. The main challenges encountered are the increase in faculty time commitment and the academic resistance to change. Extrapolation to other disciplines is possible, although it requires restructuring of subject knowledge and methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, there has been growing emphasis on sustainable development and a growing need to train students to think sustainably in preparation for their careers as practicing engineers. Thinking sustainably requires the consideration of not only environmental impacts but also societal and economic impacts. Thus, teaching future engineers to think sustainably requires a multifaceted, multipronged approach. To that end, a team of faculty from the Departments of Civil, Industrial, and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington acquired funding from the National Science Foundation to implement a project entitled 'Engineering Sustainable Engineers.' The project was designed to infuse undergraduate curricula in the three departments with sustainability, which was augmented by incorporating sustainability emphasis into other aspects of the undergraduate experience. Key program elements were (1) learning modules developed for courses across all levels of matriculation within the three curricula, (2) quality sustainable internships, and (3) a multidisciplinary senior design project with a sustainability focus. This paper summarizes the rationale, approaches, and results for integrating sustainability into the civil engineering undergraduate learning experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the state of knowledge in relation to advances in education for sustainable development focused on higher education and in generic competencies, reviewing some of the existing proposals in the literature and analyzing other university approaches. It has focused on the curricula, applying a participatory methodology based on surveys and expert consultation for the identification and selection of generic competencies related to sustainability in a civil engineering degree at Universidad Europea (Spain). From the literature review, 17 generic competencies were preselected. A set of five weighted transversal competencies and their acquisition level have been obtained through surveys to stakeholders and interviews with experts. Critical thinking, adaptation to change, decision making, problem solving, and multidisciplinary team-working were chosen in order of importance. Competence acquisition level was addressed as not easy to rate or it seems to be exigent for graduate students. Problem-based learning is also selected as the best choice for the development of these sustainability generic skills in the entire civil engineering degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy modeling (EM) facilitates analysis and comparison of energy use across design configurations. EM software can serve as a decision-making tool for professionals throughout various stages of building delivery. This case study describes methods to expose students, who are enrolled in a sustainable design and construction course, to building information modeling (BIM)-based EM capabilities and limitations. The case study focuses on documenting the implementation of a teaching module focused on energy modeling in which students modify location, insulation, and window glazing of a single family home preprogramed into BIM software. After instructor demonstration, students perform an EM analysis for additional locations as homework and answer a question set based on their EM results. The results indicate that students had minor issues interpreting the EM results because they did not fully examine the outputs produced from the energy model to inform their answers on the teaching module homework assignment. Overall, however, research findings suggest that implementing such a teaching module can improve student confidence and perception of EM use in construction delivery decisions. This paper provides an example for educators to include BIM EM or similar teaching modules into sustainable design and construction-related courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]