The development and application of a systematic approach to evaluating an academic department\u27s brand meaning

Research of existing literature indicates that below the university level, there has been little effort made in branding academia, namely academic departments. The lack of branding may significantly affect the perceptions that potential students and future employers of these students have about one of these academic units. The impact may be most significant for units where the fields of study that are represented by the department may be unclear, such as in the case of engineering management. However, even in the cases of better-understood fields of study, for example, electrical engineering, the competition for students with other fields of study and within the field of study itself may drive the need for better branding. A model for assessing and understanding a brand\u27s meaning for an intangible service as provided by an academic department has been developed and applied to the case of an engineering management department --Abstract, page iii

Engineering Management and Industrial Engineering: Similarities and Differences

Engineering Management is a broad and diverse field of engineering, thereby making it difficult to define exactly what the degree encompasses. At the same time, the somewhat related degree of Industrial Engineering is better understood. Some universities offer a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Management with an emphasis in Industrial Engineering, while others offer a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering with an emphasis in Engineering Management. In today\u27s world of competitive academia, many wonder if these degree fields are similar enough to be used interchangeably or if there is a distinct difference separating the two degrees, making it mandatory that they stay clearly separate. To be able to offer insight into these concerns, a study of academic departments will be conducted to determine how both fields are defined and what real similarities and differences exist. As part of this study, curricula from departments in both fields will also be compared to better understand the similarities and differences in these degree programs in regard to course requirements. The results of this study will be provide insight into differentiating characteristics of the engineering management degree as an aid to successfully marketing it to prospective students

The Value Of Graduate Certificate Programs In Engineering Education: A Strategic Assessment

There has been a significant increase in the popularity of non-degree graduate certificates throughout the past decade. This increase has raised questions about the value of engineering graduate certificate programs from students, alumni, and employers. Do engineering certificate programs provide real world skills and knowledge? Do they serve as effective recruiting tools for universities? Do they provide opportunities for students to meet their professional goals in terms of salary increase and promotions? This study explores these questions. Eighty-three current and former engineering certificate students, as well as forty professionals from industry, were surveyed about their value perception of graduate certificate programs. Guidance for engineering educators and other professionals concerned with development and marketing of engineering graduate certificate programs is also presented.

Management Information Systems Education: A Systematic Review

Management information systems (MIS) programs were developed to prepare graduates to create innovative solutions to problems where business and technology intersect. As such, the curricula must change rapidly to stay current with industry standards, an accelerating moving target. This research presents the findings of a systematic literature review to identify and present trends in the scholarly literature on MIS education. The purpose of this approach was to understand how academia ensures students are prepared for industry and keeps pace with changing industry needs. Key findings from the literature are presented, as well as a compilation of areas for future research. Overwhelmingly, a lack of international perspective was identified as the vast majority of articles collected data in the US. Further, the direction of future research and exploration revolved around five themes of innovative pedagogical approaches, industry partnerships, subtopics of MIS education, new methods and metrics for measuring success in MIS education, and cross-disciplinary opportunities in fields such as mathematics, traditional business disciplines, and the hard sciences

Utilizing Multimedia Case Studies to Teach the Professional Side of Project Management

This research was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of using a LITEE multimedia case study to teaching concepts in engineering courses. The LITEE Superstar case study was implemented in an engineering Project Management course. Numerous surveys regarding student expectations, outcomes, and attitudes were collected and results are presented herein. Overall, the study provided evidence that the students felt that the LITEE case study added value to the course via the different methods of teaching material, aided in the understanding of the project selection process, and ultimately helped them be successful in their course project which was conducted for a real rural Missouri city. The data was unable to be tracked on a per student basis; this yields areas for future research to track individual student improvement and attitudes. This research provides evidence that using multimedia case studies, such as the case studies published by LITEE, are effective and well received by engineering students in their coursework

Repositioning An Academic Department To Stimulate Growth

The complexity of the market in higher education, and the lack of literature regarding marketing, particularly branding, at the academic department level, presented an opportunity to establish a systematic process for evaluating an academic department’s brand meaning. A process for evaluating a brand’s meaning for an academic department is developed in this paper using Keller’s Customer Base Brand Equity model. This process will aid academic departments experiencing perception problems or wishing to improve their brand to better understand their existing brand meaning and assess the alignment between the student market perception and the industry market perception. This systematic process for evaluating a brand’s meaning is presented as applied to a case study.

Learning style and individual differences: predictors of student satisfaction as a function of course type

This study examined the relationship among individual differences, learning styles,s course satisfaction, and course performance as a function of course structure. Students enrolled in two sections of Engineering Management 209 were used to complete demographic questionnaires, personality inventories, learning style inventories, and course satisfaction questionnaires in this study. In certain instances, learning style was shown to predict course satisfaction as a function of course structure. Certain individual differences were also shown to predict course satisfaction as a function of course structure. Course performance was also shown to be related to individual differences. While the findings of this study showed potential for support of the hypotheses made, some hypotheses received only moderate to weak support due to lack of statistical power --Abstract, page iii

Introducing Engineering Management to High School Students

Attracting students to Engineering Management as a major and as a career field has always been challenging. One aspect of the problem is the difficulty in explaining to students in simple and clear terms just what Engineering Management is. Despite its well known reputation, including its place as the founding department in the field and being ABET accredited, it is unusual for an incoming freshman student at the University of Missouri Rolla (UMR) to have much understanding of the Engineering Management and Systems Engineering (EMSE) Department or its Engineering Management undergraduate major. The other key aspect of the problem is the general decline in interest in Engineering. Yankelovichl reports that in Japan, 66% of undergraduate students receive engineering or science degrees, and that number in China is 59%. That compares to only 32% in the U.S. When the science component is stripped out of those figures, the numbers are even more dismal. As Barrett2 indicates, less than 5% of U.S. students receive engineering degrees as compared to 65% in China and 29% in Japan. Overall, Asian countries produce eight times as many bachelor\u27s degrees in engineering as the U.S.3 As Friedman4 describes the problem, In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears and that is our problem. This growing vulnerability is seen as a key trend in higher education that must be effectively addressed if the U.S. is to maintain its world leadership in technology. Yankelovich, Barrett, and Friedman all point out this vulnerability and its negative impact on the future of the U.S

Perceptions of Engineering Disciplines Among High School Students

According to the 2004-2005 Occupational Outlook Handbooks, engineers, whose work is the link between scientific discovery and commercial application, apply the theories and principles of science and mathematics as a means of researching and developing economical solutions to technical problems. However, one would not receive as concise a definition of the profession if they were to ask the average high school student. Individuals who have the necessary skills and talent to be successful engineers often have no idea as to what engineering, on the whole and with respect to particular discipline, is about. To understand high school students\u27 perceptions toward engineering, sophomore-, junior- and senior-level high school students enrolled in chemistry, physics, upper-level mathematics courses, and an interdisciplinary engineering course offered in partnership with the University of Missouri - Rolla were surveyed to learn what they knew about particular engineering disciplines, engineering in general, and how they acquired this knowledge. Results of this exploration, as well as implications for recruitment efforts, are presented