Transformation of a large civil engineering department curriculum using the ASCE BOK2
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American Society for Engineering Education, 2015. Texas A&M's undergraduate civil engineering curriculum has been re-designed and founded on the 2nd edition of ASCE's Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge (BOK2). The curriculum transformation work involved a team of civil engineering faculty and students as well as a pedagogical expert and occurred over a deliberate two year timeframe. The process was made explicitly analogous to an engineering design process with data-driven analysis in order to build faculty consensus. The team adapted the BOK2 outcome statements and defined comprehensive rubrics to specify expectations of student performance for multiple indicators under each outcome at multiple levels in the curriculum. A curriculum map was then developed to identify how specific courses would introduce, reinforce, and demonstrate program outcomes as students advanced. The size of the program (in terms of available elective plans as well as personnel) required enhanced attention to potential student course plans, empowerment of course coordinators, and inclusion of representative stakeholders. Beyond the expected work of revising courses, the effort led to: a novel mid-curriculum zero credit hour course incorporating a high-impact learning practice and reflection, extensive cooperation with external departments to enhance non-departmental courses, and cataloging of resources for students to address knowledge gaps between courses. Lessons learned focus on how the expansive nature of the BOK2 outcomes require a process that values deliberation, inclusion, and creativity.
