Program Standards for Establishing High Quality Postsecondary Trade and Industrial Education Programs

The problem of this study was to develop standards that can be used as a basis for establishing high quality postsecondary trade and industrial education programs. There were two research objectives. These included: developing a set of program standards to be used to establish high quality postsecondary trade and industrial education programs and developing descriptors that can be used to assess achievement of high quality postsecondary trade and industrial education programs. The Delphi technique was chosen for this study to generate consensus regarding the program standards. The panel of experts, comprised of postsecondary administrators of trade and industrial programs, was used to determine which program standards should guide the development and assessment of high quality trade and industrial education programs. Four rounds of surveys were conducted, which resulted in a list of 17 standards with their related descriptions. The standards included Academic Integration, Advisory Committee, Curriculum, Employer Feedback, Faculty Qualifications, Meaningful Employment, Placement Rates, Program Design, Program Review, Safety, Soft Skills, Student Achievement of Industry Credentials, Student Assessment, Student Advancement, Student Remediation, and Tools and Equipment. Postsecondary administrators can use the results of the study to assess existing trade and industrial education programs. The results can also be used to guide the design of new programs that meet industry labor needs

Establishing Program Standards to Meet the Needs of Postsecondary Trade and Industrial Education

The focus of this study was to develop standards that can be used for establishing and assessing high-quality postsecondary trade and industrial programs. A four-round Delphi technique was used to generate consensus regarding program standards. The panel of experts, comprised of postsecondary administrators of trade and industrial programs, was used to determine which program standards should guide the development and assessment of high-quality trade and industrial education programs. The result was a list of 17 standards and descriptions. The standards included Academic Integration, Advisory Committee, Curriculum, Employer Feedback, Faculty Qualifications, Meaningful Employment, Placement Rates, Program Design, Program Review, Safety, Soft Skills, Student Achievement of Industry Credentials, Student Assessment, Student Advancement, Student Remediation, and Tools and Equipment. Postsecondary administrators can use the results to develop and assess existing programs, as well as to guide the design of new programs that meet industry labor needs

Multiscale approach including microfibril scale to assess elastic constants of cortical bone based on neural network computation and homogenization method

The complexity and heterogeneity of bone tissue require a multiscale modelling to understand its mechanical behaviour and its remodelling mechanisms. In this paper, a novel multiscale hierarchical approach including microfibril scale based on hybrid neural network computation and homogenisation equations was developed to link nanoscopic and macroscopic scales to estimate the elastic properties of human cortical bone. The multiscale model is divided into three main phases: (i) in step 0, the elastic constants of collagen-water and mineral-water composites are calculated by averaging the upper and lower Hill bounds; (ii) in step 1, the elastic properties of the collagen microfibril are computed using a trained neural network simulation. Finite element (FE) calculation is performed at nanoscopic levels to provide a database to train an in-house neural network program; (iii) in steps 2 to 10 from fibril to continuum cortical bone tissue, homogenisation equations are used to perform the computation at the higher scales. The neural network outputs (elastic properties of the microfibril) are used as inputs for the homogenisation computation to determine the properties of mineralised collagen fibril. The mechanical and geometrical properties of bone constituents (mineral, collagen and cross-links) as well as the porosity were taken in consideration. This paper aims to predict analytically the effective elastic constants of cortical bone by modelling its elastic response at these different scales, ranging from the nanostructural to mesostructural levels. Our findings of the lowest scale's output were well integrated with the other higher levels and serve as inputs for the next higher scale modelling. Good agreement was obtained between our predicted results and literature data.Comment: 2

Establishing Program Standards to Meet the Needs of Postsecondary Trade and Industrial Education

The focus of this study was to develop standards that can be used for establishing and assessing high-quality postsecondary trade and industrial programs. A four-round Delphi technique was used to generate consensus regarding program standards. The panel of experts, comprised of postsecondary administrators of trade and industrial programs, was used to determine which program standards should guide the development and assessment of high-quality trade and industrial education programs. The result was a list of 17 standards and descriptions. The standards included Academic Integration, Advisory Committee, Curriculum, Employer Feedback, Faculty Qualifications, Meaningful Employment, Placement Rates, Program Design, Program Review, Safety, Soft Skills, Student Achievement of Industry Credentials, Student Assessment, Student Advancement, Student Remediation, and Tools and Equipment. Postsecondary administrators can use the results to develop and assess existing programs, as well as to guide the design of new programs that meet industry labor needs