Page 84 - Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century

Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11338.html

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF COOPERATIVE EDUCATION 67

in the declining enrollment in cooperative education at that institution.
Interestingly, students who participate in cooperative programs at Geor-
gia Tech actually do take about six months longer to graduate, but they
enroll in fewer school terms to do so, thus saving tuition money in the
long run. Many of these students also participate in study abroad pro-
grams and undergraduate research, which dispels some widely held mis-
conceptions.

ACCREDITATION DATA

I would be remiss if I did not mention the value of co-op programs
to the accreditation of engineering programs. Recently, accrediting or-
ganizations, including the Accreditation Board for Engineering and
Technology (ABET), have moved toward outcomes-based assessments
of programs. Engineering Criteria 2000, which was begun by ABET
several years ago, includes students’ ability to perform certain functions,
such as working on multidisciplinary teams, applying engineering
knowledge, and so forth. Consequently, engineering deans and provosts
at many institutions have discovered the value of data collected by their
co-op programs. In fact, information gathered from employers’ evalua-
tions of co-op students’ performance has been invaluable in determin-
ing, from a third-party source, if the education received on campus is
not only thorough, but also relevant enough to prepare individuals for
the transition from “student” to professional.

CONCLUSION
In the future, there will be many models for engineering education.
However, the concept of cooperative education still makes good fiscal
sense, good pedagogical sense, and good career sense. Cooperative edu-
cation opens a myriad of possibilities for anyone pursuing a formal edu-
cation at the postsecondary level. Although its form may change from
one generation to the next, there is no substitute for blending practical
application with theory learned in the classroom, and there is no better
laboratory than the real world. Future leaders of technology must have
experience outside the classroom to function effectively.

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