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:
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Adopt Semester Zero programs to effectively transition high school and community college students to university learning.
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Establish Guided Pathways for all degree programs.
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Establish Transfer Pathways with community college feeders, and concurrent enrollment options.
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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:
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Adopt an Engineering Code of Ethics and instill professional norms for integrity, representation of work, and commitment to public safety.
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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:
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Adopt an Internship Initiative, offering a paid internship experience to all COE students.
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Utilize AR/VR in COE Curriculum to increase learning, engagement, and inclusivity.
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Enhance and increase project-based learning to create job-ready engineering graduates.
Progress:
- 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.
Last updated: Aug. 8, 2023
