Be a Student-Ready University
As teaching and learning modalities evolve and our nontraditional learners population increases, we must ensure that our campus is ready for students, not the other way around.
Foster a Community of Belonging for All Students
Incoming high school and community college students would receive an introduction to the COE through Semester Zero programs. Guided Pathways would streamline all students’ paths to graduation and reduce taking unnecessary units. Four-year graduation rates for engineering freshmen remain low, and the average number of units at graduation is well above the required 120 units.
Similarly, Transfer Pathways established with community college feeders would provide roadmaps for transfer students, and potentially increase two-year graduation rates that are low due to incomplete lower-division prerequisites. Concurrent enrollment options would be created to backfill those lower-division requirements.
Expanding Cohort Learning Models, such as the Beach Engineering Student Success Team (BESST), would also foster a community of belonging. BESST consistently boasts high first-year calculus completion rates, a predictor of success in COE programs.
Recommended Actions:
- Adopt Semester Zero programs to effectively transition high school and community college students to university learning.
- Establish Guided Pathways for all degree programs.
- Establish Transfer Pathways with community college feeders, and concurrent enrollment options.
- Expand Cohort Learning Models, such as the Beach Engineering Student Success Team (BESST) program.
Prioritize Student Health and Well-Being
According to faculty and student feedback, cheating in the college was exacerbated by the pandemic. At the same time, some cheating penalties have resulted in extreme and widespread student distress. Adopting an Engineering Code of Ethics, instilling professional norms, and revising college academic dishonesty guidelines have been recommended to clarify commonly accepted practices and reduce student anxiety over grades.
Recommended Actions:
- Adopt an Engineering Code of Ethics and instill professional norms for integrity, representation of work, and commitment to public safety.
- Revise the college’s academic dishonesty guidelines to clarify commonly accepted practices and reduce student anxiety over grades.
Connect Learning to the Future of Work
The COE has a reputation for providing hands-on learning opportunities and creating graduates ready to hit the ground running. The recommended actions below will offer High-impact Practices (HIPs) to connect learning to the future of work. An Internship Initiative will extend a paid internship experience to all COE students. AR/VR facilities and equipment will be leveraged to incorporate the new technologies into the curriculum. And enhanced project-based learning opportunities will be provided.
Recommended Actions:
- Adopt an Internship Initiative, offering a paid internship experience to all COE students.
- Utilize AR/VR in COE Curriculum to increase learning, engagement, and inclusivity.
- Enhance and increase project-based learning to create job-ready engineering graduates.
Progress:
Pilot Transfer Pathway and Guided Pathway In 2024, the COE received a $2.5M K-16 Collaborative grant from the State of CA (administered through LACCD and Unite-LA) to develop equitable workforce pathways in engineering, computer science, and health in the Long Beach Region, in collaboration with CHHS, Provost’s Office, LBCC, and LBUSD. The work in the COE includes the increase of articulated courses for the BS Computer Engineering Technology major and the creation of a digital roadmaps for high school and transfer students. If this pilot is successful, we may expand them to other majors.
Progress in Cohort Learning Models Thanks to recent donations, grants, and the support from the Provost’s Office, the COE will expand to 9 BESST/Beach XP cohorts in 2024-2025, which will allow us to serve 225 freshmen.
COE Academic Integrity Guidelines The COE Committee on Academic Integrity completed a draft of guidelines for the college, currently in review by the EFC. The guidelines include best practices to discourage cheating, guidelines for cheating penalties, and tools/resources. They reviewed best practices, administered a faculty survey, and consulted with a well-known expert in the field, Dr. Tricia Bertram Gallant from UCSD. They invited two students to the committee, Chris Maude and Dylan Huynh, and they provided invaluable feedback.
Internships For All The COE initiated a goal to have 100% of our undergraduate students engage in a paid internship in their field prior to graduating. An internship is especially important for first-generation students who do not have parents in the field or the built-in mentorship that many engineers take for granted. Based on the 2024 Senior Exit Survey, 45% of our graduating seniors have had an internship related to their major while a student in our programs, which has increased from 32.5% in 2022. We have strengthened our collaborations with the CDC and the new Office of Internships and Community Service. The Dean's Advisory Council has a subcommittee working on internships. We recently hired an Internship Coordinator to further these efforts.
Project Based Learning Project-based learning is a high-impact practice cited for increasing learning, retention, and engagement, particularly for the demographic of students that we serve. Our COE Affiliates Program, whose membership fees support senior design projects and competitions, has grown to 7 partners (SCE, Swinerton, Sukut Construction, Southern CA SIM, SoCalGas, RTX, and Chevron. The Beach Launch Pad project, a major renovation of the ET wing and the courtyard between EN3 and EN4, will vastly increase our project-based learning space and capabilities. This project is entering the design phase in Fall 2024 and is anticipated to start construction towards the end of 2025.
Updated: Sep. 9, 2024
- Expand Cohort Learning Models In Fall 2023, we will double the number of first-time freshmen in a cohort learning environment. In addition to the BESST program (2 cohorts), the COE will have 4 additional cohorts under the Beach XP program.
- Academic Dishonesty COE Committee on Academic Integrity (Eun-Jung Chae, Mortaza Saeidi-Javash, Darr Hashempour, Steven Gold – chair, Shahrzad Dastmalchi) is working on defining guidelines and best practices for handling cheating in the college.
- AR/VR Professors Emel Demircan and I-Hung Khoo have engaged with the company, Victory XR, to bring AR/VR technology to the senior design class in Biomedical Engineering. Professors Panadda Marayong and Praveen Shankar have an NSF-funded CAVE system that provides an immersive environment for flight simulations. Professor Vahid Balali uses AR/VR to simulate building construction.
- Project-based learning The COE has initiated the Industry Affiliates Program in AY 2022-2023. Membership fees support COE senior design projects, as well as some competition projects. Our senior projects are celebrated at the Senior Design Project Expo at the culmination of the academic year, with the first annual event held on May 4-5, 2023. We had 4 affiliate members in 2022-23 (SCE, SoCalGas, Sukut, and Swinerton). The first affiliate for 2023-24 is Raytheon.
Updated: Aug. 8, 2023
