Engineering Curricula:  Understanding the Design Space and Exploiting the Opportunities: Summary of a Workshop
During a workshop in April 2009, representatives of industry, academia, government agencies, and professional societies came together to address (1) the restructuring of engineering curricula to focus on inductive learning through inquiry-based activities and learning experiences grounded in the real world, (2) the integrated, just-in-time learning of relevant topics in STEM fields, and (3) the creative use and implementation of learning technologies. Additional topics arose during breakout discussions, including many additional suggestions for facilitating curricular innovation. Attendees included individuals from industry, academia, government agencies, and professional societies.

 
Developing Metrics for Assessing Engineering Instruction: What Gets Measured is What Gets Improved
Faculty in all disciplines must continually prioritize their time to reflect the many demands of their faculty obligations, but they must also prioritize their efforts in ways that will improve the prospects of career advancement. The current perception is that research contributions are the most important measure with respect to faculty promotion and tenure decisions, and that teaching effectiveness is less valued--regardless of the stated weighting of research, teaching and service. In addition, methods for assessing research accomplishments are well established, even though imperfect, whereas metrics for assessing teaching, learning, and instructional effectiveness are not as well defined or well established.

Developing Metrics for Assessing Engineering Instruction provides a concise description of a process to develop and institute a valid and acceptable means of measuring teaching effectiveness in order to foster greater acceptance and rewards for faculty efforts to improve their performance of the teaching role that makes up a part of their faculty responsibility. Although the focus of this book is in the area of engineering, the concepts and approaches are applicable to all fields in higher education.
 

Enhancing the Community College Pathway to Engineering Careers (2005)
Community colleges play an important role in educating engineering students, but the quality of these colleges' engineering programs is not known and many students are unaware of the possibility of transferring to four-year educational institutions. “Enhancing the Community College Pathway to Engineering Careers,” a new report from the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council, discusses ways to improve engineering education at community colleges and strategies to enhance partnerships between those colleges and four-year schools of engineering.

Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century (2005)
The Phase I report of the Engineer of 2020 Project, Visions of Engineering in the New Century, identified the attributes and abilities engineers will need to perform well in a world driven by rapid technological advancements, national security needs, aging infrastructure in developed countries, environmental challenges brought about by population growth and diminishing resources, and the creation of new disciplines at the interfaces between engineering and science. To ensure that future engineers have these capabilities, they must be educated to be not only technically proficient, but also ethically grounded global citizens who can become leaders in business and public service. This Phase II report provides recommendations to guide engineering educators, employers, professional societies, and government agencies as they reengineer the "system of systems," the engineering education process.

The Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century (2004)
To help maintain the nation's economic competitiveness and improve the quality of life of the world's population, engineering education in the United States must anticipate and adapt to dramatic changes in engineering practice in the coming decades, says a new National Academy of Engineering report. The report recommends ways to improve engineers' training and prepare them for the complex technical, social and ethical questions raised by emerging technologies.

Information Technology (IT)-Based Educational Materials: Workshop Report with Recommendations (2003)
In the last half-century, we have witnessed the birth and development of a new era-the information age. Information Technology (IT), the primary vehicle of the information age, has transformed the modern workplace and is pervasive in the development of new knowledge and wealth. IT has also dramatically influenced our capacity to educate. Yet, the application of IT in education has been disorganized and uneven. Pockets of innovation in localized environments are thriving, but the promise of open access, greatly enhanced teaching and learning, and large-scale use has not been realized. IT-Based Educational Materials: Workshop Report with Recommendations identifies critical components that support the development and use of IT-based educational materials. The report points to three high priority action areas that would produce a transitional strategy from our fragmented environment to an IT-transformed future in engineering education--Build Community; Create Organizational Enablers; and Coordinate Action. The report outlines six recommendations, including a call to establish a national laboratory to carry out evidenced-based investigations and other activities to insure interoperability and effective teaching and learning. The report also stresses the need to pursue open architectures and to engage multidisciplinary researchers, including social scientists and others who address the transformation of faculty cultures. The report also discusses the need to engage users and developers of the IT-products in activities that are driven by student learning outcomes. This initiative has been partially funded by the Kavli Institute, Oxnard, California.

Additional Publications from National Academy of Engineering