Dayton Engineer

The University of Dayton School of Engineering is finding new ways to strengthen its courses that are essential in preparing students for their future careers.

Engineering students take a seminar course each year, with content that is determined by their department but focuses on where they are in their college career – introduction to engineering the first year, how to find co-ops and internships the second year and professional development in their junior and senior years. 

While all are great topics to building a work-ready engineer, there was one big obstacle. Most seminar classes were worth zero credits on a student’s transcript.

“When courses are zero credits, students sometimes find it harder to see the value and therefore engage in the same way with that material,” said Dr. Kim Bigelow, interim associate dean for academics and student success.

Earlier this summer, Bigelow, alongside a team of engineering staff members, decided to revive past conversations of revisioning the seminar courses. They decided to start with the upper level professional development courses. 

Rather than one course each year, the team has proposed a group of minicourses where students can choose topics that best align with their career goals or areas they’d like to improve their skills in. Students also have the ability to choose to complete the minicourses when it works for their schedule, ideally starting their sophomore year. 

“Our Engineering Co-op and Internship Office found that when they talked to students, many finishing their co-ops discovered skills they wished they had,” Bigelow said. “Our civil engineering students don’t have to take a CAD class, but would have liked CAD knowledge for their co-op. A minicourse would have given them an introductory exposure to that, and given them a little bit of a head start on that upskilling for their professional development.”

The full suite of topics are still being developed. Current ideas include inclusive excellence, preparing for the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, project management, Python programming, CAD, AI, Lean Six Sigma and more. Courses can be asynchronous, in-person or a mixture of both.

“Really, students can pick and choose what's going to be personally fulfilling for them,” Bigelow said.

The rollout of the minicourses is a work in progress, but the goal is for each to be 0.5 credits and requiring students to complete 2 credits worth by graduation. 

A larger goal is to continue growing the minicourse idea, with hopes to turn them into credentialing opportunities. If a student takes a number of minicourses under a certain topic, they can receive a badge. The School of Engineering is continuing to work with the Registrar’s Office to build this further.

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), the largest in the school, is adopting the new minicourse program for their juniors and seniors this fall. Because the seminars are organized by departments, they are able to opt-in if they want. The hope is that more departments will follow MAE.

“I've talked to a lot of alumni about what we're anticipating, and they've given really good feedback that this is something that they would have really enjoyed and really seen value in as students,” Bigelow said. “Some alumni who are very focused in these areas have already said they are interested in helping to develop modules.”