Introducing Freshmen to Construction Estimating and Scheduling Using K\u27NEX Bridge Kits

The College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University has developed project-based courses for freshmen engineering students in order to engage them in engineering early with the goal of increasing retention. The courses are divided into three five-week modules that are distributed among the various departments within the college. The Engineering Technology department is responsible for two of the five week modules. One module is comprised of all the engineering technology curriculums; civil, electrical and mechanical, and the other module is strictly a civil engineering technology project. The civil engineering technology project is focused on the construction industry. Students are introduced to Civil Engineering as a discipline area, and then to the construction industry. Students are then taught how to estimate and schedule a simple bridge project using K\u27NEX Bridge Kits. Students build their bridges based on their estimates and can evaluate their quantity take offs for accuracy. This paper will describe the content of the module, describe how the bridge kits are used, and will detail the student enrollment changes that the civil engineering technology program has seen as a result of these projects based courses

Design, Development, and Delivery of Certificate Programs for Funding Opportunities and Industry Collaboration

Many engineering technology departments have four general areas that are used for evaluation of tenure and promotion. These areas include teaching, research and scholarly activities, service, and other professional activities. Although teaching is the primary mission in most engineering technology programs, external funding as part of the research area is playing a larger role in tenure decisions at many universities. Many faculty members in engineering technology programs come from an industrial background and do not have a specific research area of interest and contacts within the research community. These faculty members must look at other avenues to develop the external funding necessary for tenure. Departments and faculty must think in an entrepreneurial way to consider and value all types of external funding options. One possibility that produces a wide range of ancillary benefits is continuing education programs. This paper describes a model that was developed for continuing education programs in an engineering technology department. It details the problems associated with the implementation of the model for the first series of courses and outlines future plans to implement additional course series

Collaborative Strategies for Sea Level Rise Adaptation in Hampton Roads, Virginia

[Introduction] The Hampton Roads region is located in southeastern Virginia where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. The region includes seventeen municipal governments and has a large federal government presence with 26 federal agencies represented (See Figure 1). The region has a population that exceeds 1.7 million and is home to the deepest water harbor on the U.S. East Coast. Hampton Roads\u27 economy is dependent on the local waterways and houses the world\u27s largest naval facility, the sixth largest containerized cargo complex and supports a thriving shipbuilding and repair industry as well as a tourism industry. However, the region\u27s vast coastline also contributes to its vulnerability from climate change. Hampton Roads is experiencing sea level rise at twice the global rate with regional projections in the January 2017 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report, Global and Regional Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States, of 1.9 feet of sea level rise at the low end and 11.5 feet of sea level rise under the most extreme case between 2000 and 2100 (NOAA, 2017). Planning for adaptation to sea level rise requires regional partnerships and strategies, especially for watersheds that cross municipal boundaries. While many of the municipalities in the region are forward thinking in their approaches to sea level rise, there is not a regional plan for adaptation and current federal funding models do not support analysis of and planning for sea level rise impacts on a regional scale. For coastal communities to be successful in sea level rise adaptation, there has to be a national understanding that water knows no borders and only collaborative problem-solving approaches that cross municipal boundaries will move regions toward adaptation. Functional boundaries of ecosystems or watersheds need to be the focus of adaptation rather than political boundaries of local, state, and federal entities. Coordination and collaboration between entities is the only way to achieve optimal outcomes

Identifying University Minors to Support The Construction Specialization Area Within a Civil Engineering Technology Program

Construction programs at many universities are diversified and provide students with opportunities to examine topic areas that include mechanical and electrical systems, safety, business administration, residential construction, real estate, and management. It is impossible for small civil engineering technology programs with a construction emphasis to encompass all of these expertise areas. As industry looks for students with a knowledge base in these areas, it is incumbent upon programs to find avenues to provide these educational opportunities to their students. To meet the upper division general education requirements for Old Dominion University, students must have either a minor, second major or a cluster, which is similar to a minor except that it is interdisciplinary in nature. Civil Engineering Technology (CET) students have historically taken advantage of minors that provide expertise in the areas of mechanical systems and engineering management. Both of these minors are offered by academic units which are housed in the same college as the CET program. Upon examination of minors available at the university in other academic units, it is apparent that additional expertise is available. This additional expertise can be found in the College of Health Sciences and the College of Business and Public Administration which offer minors in the areas of safety, business administration, real estate, and management. The construction advisory committee for the CET program has examined the academic minors that are available in the College of Health Sciences and the College of Business and Public Administration and made recommendations regarding these minors. A CET Minor Recommendation Form has been developed as an outcome of the construction advisory committee recommendations. This paper examines the minor recommendations from that committee, examines the content of these minors, and evaluates the academic impact on students who may choose this route as a way to obtain knowledge in these specialized areas

Active Learning in Distance Education

Although there are many strategies for incorporating active learning exercises into the traditional classroom, incorporating active learning exercises in a distance education delivery format is more challenging. Active learning has been shown to enhance student performance and attitudes when used in conjunction with a traditional lecture format.1 In order for students to be actively involved they must read, write, discuss, problem solve and engage higher-order thinking tasks such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.2 The implementation of active learning exercises in distance education classes may help establish student rapport and enhance the feeling of community among the students in a distance education environment. In distance education instruction, it is more difficult to establish student rapport and get student feedback from the remote students than from those in the traditional campus setting. Old Dominion University delivers junior and senior level engineering technology elective courses using one-way video and two-way audio. The limitations of this delivery system compound the problems of establishing student rapport due to the geographical disparity of the students and the instructor. Active learning techniques commonly used in large classroom environments require creative adaptation to fit the delivery medium used in distance learning. This paper will describe the implementation of active learning exercises in three senior elective courses in the distance education setting, how the implementation of these techniques effected the student evaluation of the distance class as compared to the on campus class, and the observations made by the faculty while implementing active learning techniques in a distant education environment. This paper will also explore additional active learning strategies that can be implemented in the future

A Comparison of Instructional Delivery Methods Based on Student Evaluation Data

Distance Education is an increasingly common educational delivery method. At Old Dominion University, all junior and senior level engineering technology courses are offered via distance education at least once every two years. A majority of courses in the distance education system at this university have three simultaneous delivery methods: on-campus, televised (receiving the course at an off-campus site via satellite video/audio), and internet-based video-streamed. This paper explores the results of student course evaluation surveys for trends, in particular those trends which can be a result of the mode of delivery. Results of these surveys for 23 courses over a 4-year period are tabulated, and probable reasons for the trends are given

Training for Adjunct Faculty

Professor, teacher, instructor, faculty member –all are cherished and incredibly important titles at any university. At the same time, every full-time faculty member knows that it took time to become a good teacher and that training and mentoring shortens the required train-up period. Members of the Civil Engineering Department Heads Council Executive Committee (DHCEC) have indicated that the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) ExCEEd Teaching Workshop is a must have tool for developing new faculty. So why do we thrust a syllabus into the hands of adjunct faculty and wish them well – while it appears that some type of orientation training is warranted for all full-time faculty? This paper examines the topics that should be covered in such training. The results are based on a survey of existing civil engineering department heads and an examination of the training already available through universities and professional societies

International Service Learning Projects for Senior Capstone Projects

Service learning is being adopted in many engineering programs at various course levels. International service learning experiences can provide senior level engineering students with opportunities to practice the required skills of engineering graduates as detailed by the ABET Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs. Bridges to Prosperity is a non-profit organization that builds footbridges in rural third world communities. These design build footbridge projects require a full year for fundraising, site visit, design and construction, and provide engineering students an opportunity to practice their knowledge of globalization, sustainability, engineering design, teamwork, and leadership. A team of students from the University of Iowa completed the design and construction of a footbridge in Peru in the spring of 2008. The planning, implementation and results of this service learning project are examined

Hampton Roads Sea Level Rise Preparedness and Resilience Intergovernmental Pilot Project. Phase 1 Report: Accomplishments and Lessons Learned

Executive Summary Initiated in June 2014, the Hampton Roads Sea Level Rise Preparedness and Resilience Intergovernmental Pilot Project (Intergovernmental Pilot Project or IPP) convened at Old Dominion University is an effort to use the knowledge skills and expertise of all regional stakeholders to create a framework or template for intergovernmental strategic planning that can be used outside the region; and, to implement that integrated strategy in Hampton Roads, Virginia creating an effective and efficient method for planning holistically for sea level rise and recurrent flooding. With active stakeholders from the Department of Defense, federal agencies and the White House as well as the Commonwealth of Virginia and many localities across Hampton Roads, Virginia, the IPP is truly a “whole of government” effort. Knowing water knows no jurisdictional bounds, that level of intergovernmental collaboration is necessary to develop integrated regional solutions and implement effective sea level rise preparedness and resilience strategies. Additionally, the wider community in Hampton Roads recognizes that they too will be affected by not only sea level rise itself, but also the adaptation strategies implemented in preparation. Thus, IPP stakeholders include representatives from private industry, infrastructure, non-profits, the real estate community, and vulnerable communities. Furthermore, while the IPP was conceived in Hampton Roads, the IPP recognizes that sea level rise affects the entire Commonwealth, and a successful ‘whole of government and community’ approach must eventually include regions beyond Hampton Roads and reach across the Coastal Virginia and the Commonwealth as a whole. Throughout the past year stakeholders have attended numerous IPP meetings and many supporting events, but they have also, through their own personal and professional lives driven the resilience conversation in Hampton Roads and beyond. The IPP is completely unfunded and exists not as an entity, but as an experiment, bringing together the community, and leveraging and building upon other initiatives from the Secure Commonwealth Panel’s Subcommittee on Sea Level Rise to Urban Land Institute’s Resilient Region Reality Checks to NOAA and NASA scientists. The first Phase of this two-Phase, two-year project came to completion during the summer of 2015 with a daylong leadership retreat. This report summarizes the stakeholder engagement and due-diligence process stakeholders undertook during Phase 1, but does not detail each meeting or event that took place. Phase 2 will continue to build on other initiatives and count on stakeholders to use these networks and knowledge to create an enduring entity, organization, or strategy to continue using economies of scale and the “whole of government and community” model for sea level rise preparedness and resilience in Hampton Roads and elsewhere