THE ARIZONA TRI-UNIVERSITY MASTER OF ENGINEERING PROGRAM

THE ARIZONA TRI-UNIVERSITY MASTER OF ENGINEERING PROGRAM Kathleen Gonzalez-Landis1, Paul Flikkema2, Vern Johnson3, Joseph Palais4, Ernesto Penado5, RonaldRoedel6, Dan Shunk7Abstract– In collaboration, the three state universities in Arizona offer a Master of Engineering degree program designed to serve the advanced educational needs of employment-bound professionals and residential students. The resulting educational program serves a target population that is best described as technically sophisticated part-time students in full-time employment. Arizona’s MEng program offered 25 web courses during Spring 2002, 84 students are currently registered in the program, and 16 have graduated. These numbers are all expected to grow significantly during the coming few years. Available courses, programs of study, student demographics, and program highlights and challenges are described, as are the administrative structure and industrial partnership that support this collaborative educational program.Index Terms – Collaboration, distance education, master of engineering degree, web-based courses.I NTRODUCTIONMotivation and Need for the Program Conventional graduate programs in engineering, such as the Master of Science, are designed primarily to serve the needs of residential students, and often neglect an increasingly growing number of constituents that includes practicing engineers. Engineers work in technical fields that change so rapidly that careers cannot survive without continuous learning. They are employed in a widely dispersed, global market where extensive travel is a common job-related requirement. Insofar as the graduate education of practicing engineers is concerned, career changes and job-related travel make these prospective students something of a ‘moving target.’ Workplace- or campus-oriented programs cannot suffice; based on existing technologies the web is the only medium that can realistically be used to accommodate the educational needs of practicing engineers.As a group, this audience is underserved. Indeed, companies across the nation are calling for advanced engineering educational programs designed for working professionals [1,2,3,4], programs that can be delivered: • anywhere, so that students are not bound to a classroom environment, and• anytime, so that job-related deadlines and travel schedules can be accommodated.Individual students, who recognize the need for educational programs that accommodate their personal and professional lives, have also called for the development of such programs [5,6].In collaboration, the three state universities in Arizona (ASU, NAU, UA) offer a Master of Engineering degree (MEng) program designed to serve the advanced educational needs of employment-bound professionals and residential students. The resulting educational program serves a target population that is best described as technically sophisticated part-time students in full-time employment. They are geographically dispersed and many can be characterized as ‘returning’ or ‘nontraditional’ students, in that several years have passed since the completion of their previous degree programs. In addition, traditional residential students also benefit from the program because they gained access to a much larger and more diverse pool of courses and programs of study than normally offered by a single campus.Details about the nature and structure of the program have been provided in a previous paper [7]. This paper, concentrates on the new developments and lessons learned during the past three years.Goals and ExpectationsIndividual universities are beginning to offer fully on-line masters degrees in engineering that are typically of limited scope [8,9,10]. However, technical specialization is the hallmark of graduate-level engineering education. This means that a rather broad spectrum of courses must be available to meet student needs. Because the Arizona tri-university collaboration involves three entire colleges of engineering, a broader spectrum of engineering programs is available to MEng students than is currently available at any one of the affiliated universities. The program depends on web-based delivery of courses. In order to reconcile the economies of scale necessary to justify this delivery mode1 Kathleen Gonzalez-Landis, Arizona Tri-University, N507 AME Bldg, Tucson, AZ, 85721 triuniv-engr@2 Paul Flikkema, Northern Arizona University, Elect Engr Dpt, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011 paul.flikkema@3 Vern Johnson, University of Arizona, 200 Engineering Bldg, Tucson, AZ, 85721 vjohnson@4 Joseph Palais, Arizona State University, 555 Engineering Research Ctr, Tempe, AZ, 85287 joseph.palais@5 Ernesto Penado, Northern Arizona University, Mech Engr Dpt, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011 ernesto.penado@6 Ronald Roedel, Arizona State University, 107 Engineering Research Ctr, Tempe, AZ, 85287 r.roedel@7 Dan Shunk, Arizona State University, 524 Goldwater Ctr, Tempe, AZ, 85287 dan.shunk@with the specialization required [11], the collaborating institutions are coordinating course development efforts. The efficiency of collaboration becomes apparent, see Figure 1, when one considers the need to develop new web courses for each of the many programs of study required to support a master’s degree in engineering. For on-campus offerings each school supports a geographic region of the state with complete sets of courses for each curricula offered. The MEng degree collaboration, however, eliminates geographic boundaries and requires each school to develop only one-third of the courses for a degree to have it offered to all three populations. This is almost a ten-fold increase in efficiency. Because of the high expense of web course development, this is a very important factor.COLLABORATION OFFERS A TEN-FOLD INCREASE INEFFICIENCY.Connection to the Arizona Regents UniversityIn the Fall of 2000, the Arizona Board of Regents developed the concept of an Arizona Regents University (ARU). ARU was established in general recognition of a statewide need for an expansion of e-learning and to solve problems associated with the growth of place independent education in the state of Arizona.Even though ARU and the MEng Program were initiated as completely separate and independent entities, it is obvious that many similarities exist between the missions of these two activities. These similarities prompted ARU to adopt the MEng Program as its first program and assume its structure as an operating model. This adoption resulted in a recent allocation of resources for the development of web courses for the MEng Program. The net result will be the development of over 30 additional MEng web courses over the next three years. In addition, the support from ARU is a testimony to the relevance and timeliness of the MEng program in meeting the educational needs of the state.Uniqueness of the programThe MEng program was designed from the outset to be a collaborative effort so that the resources of three institutions could be tapped to reach the broadest audience with a wide array of disciplinary courses and programs. This collaboration cuts across administrative as well as academic planes.The nexus of this collaboration is the MEng Coordinating Board (CB), which has three representatives from each university: a campus director, a dean’s designee, and a faculty representative. This body has now been in existence since 1998, and meets monthly. During the past two years, the Board’s concerns have evolved from planning and initiating the program to cross-campus issues that have arisen in its implementation and growth. To this end, the CB obtained funding from the three institutions and hired a full-time Program Manager to conduct its day-to-day activities. Key responsibilities of this person include outreach to industry, marketing, and recruitment. In addition, each of the institutions has hired a part-time Campus Coordinator. These coordinators work closely with the Program Manager, and often serve as the initial point of contact for prospective students, as well as a liaison with other institutional units.S TRUCTUREThe Home Institution ConceptAlthough the MEng program is collaborative among the three universities, only one school can officially admit a given student and eventually award the degree. The North Central Association allows only accredited institutions to grant degrees. Each of the state universities is fully accredited, but the three in combination are not recognized as being accredited. Because of this, the home institution model was developed.Prospective students choose to apply to one of the three state universities. If accepted, that school becomes the student's home institution. While there is no residency requirement, the chair of each student’s advisory committee comes from the home institution. Additional committee members may be from any of the collaborating schools and can even be a practicing professional from the company where the student is employed. The home institution tracks academic progress, provides student services, and confers the degree in collaboration with the other two universities. MEng students are free to register for courses at any of the three state universities, but a minimum of ten course credits (out of the required thirty) must come from the home institution.Admission Policies and Process Prospective students applying for admission are expected to meet the following minimum requirements:• A baccalaureate degree from an accredited US institution with a suitable background for the desired field of study.• A minimum grade point average of 3.00 (on a 4.00 scale) for the last 60 units on the undergraduatetranscript (or for the last 12 units of post-baccalaureate coursework).Some academic units and programs have more restrictive admissi ons criteria than the minima listed above. Also, graduates of non-US institutions must satisfy the admission requirements of the Graduate College at their home institution. Individuals not meeting the above conditions may be recommended for either provis ional admission or non-degree status. After completing suitable deficiency or background courses these students may petition for regular admission.The program admission packet consists of a MEng application form, a statement of career objectives, and three letters of recommendation. The admissions committee at each university is chaired by the Campus Director and includes representatives from all units that offer the MEng degree.Areas of Study - Spectrum and SpecialtiesAs indicated earlier, technical specialization is the hallmark of graduate-level engineering education and the MEng program is flexible enough to accommodate a wide variety of student interests ranging from recent engineering graduates wanting to follow a traditional departmental emphasis to seasoned practicing engineers who want to tailor their education to meet their own professional needs. In support of these varying interests, three formats exist for the areas of study that comprise the MEng degree. Students can choose to apply for MEng degrees based on the format that best meets their personal needs. These formats are: • Student-centered. Students using this format prepare and submit programs of study that meet their personal needs. Their faculty advisory committees then review and approve if they are appropriate. The only limitations are that courses in applied mathematics and engineering management/business must be taken, and at least 15 credit hours of the coursework must be in engineering.• Traditional departmental emphasis. In this format, students follow a conventional departmental emphasis in one of the traditional areas of engineering.• Nontraditional specialty emphasis. For this format, faculty prepare programs of study that express their expertise and resources. These special programs are usually cross-disciplinary in format. During a recent MEng workshop a collection of 16 programs of study was proposed by the department heads/chairs of the three schools to respond directly to the needs outlined by the members of the programs industrial advisory board:• Analog/Mixed Signal Design• Communication Circuits and Systems• Computer and Information Engineering• Construction Engineering Management• Design and Manufacturing• Dynamics and Control• Embedded Systems• Excavation Engineering• Integrated Aerospace Engineering• Materials Science and Engineering• Multimedia Image Processing• Photonic Materials• Semiconductor Process and Manufacturing• Solid Mechanics• Thermal Fluid Systems• Transportation EngineeringWhile all courses needed to offer these programs are currently available on campus, some are not available in web-format. The program’s advisory board will periodically survey Arizona industries and prospective MEng students to determine the level of interest in each program. The results of this survey will guide the choice of web courses to be developed in the future.An Example of a MEng Program of StudyThe details of the MEng program in Transportation Engineering are illustrated below as a representative example of one of the specialty programs listed above. The purpose of this program is to allow participating engineers anywhere in the country to enhance their education in transportation engineering. Courses in transportation facility design, traffic and transportation operations, and urban transportation planning serve as the main engineering technical electives within the program. Within the given course offerings, there is considerable flexibility in designing a program of study particular to the students' needs and goals. Als o, additional courses will be added to the curriculum over time. Complementing the coursework is a project. Ideally, the project will fit in with activities the student may be doing as part of his/her normal employment responsibilities. This will allow a tighter integration of the curriculum with current practice of transportation engineering in Arizona.The degree requirements for this program are:• One of the following applied engineering mathematics courses: Introduction to Operations Research, Finite Element Analysis, or Linear Algebra for Engineers. All are available on the web.• One of the following engineering management courses: Project Management or Strategic Technology Management. Both are available on the web.• An optional 0-6 credit practice-oriented project.• 18-24 hours of electives for a total of 30 units of coursework.Transportation elective courses currently available on the web include:• Pavement Analysis and Design• Properties of Concrete• Intelligent Transportation Systems• Traffic Studies and Signal Systems• Traffic Engineering• Urban Transportation Planning• Urban Public Transportation PlanningCourses Available by Distance LearningIn order to support the 16 areas of study described above a variety of web courses have been developed. Many more are planned for development in the near future. In addition, residential courses are offered. The total number of web courses now available is 51, of which 25 were offered spring 2002. Some of these courses are offered in modular format, typically as a series of 3 1-credit-hour modules. A listing of the web courses now available in the program is available at .The Capstone EventIt is a requirement that each MEng student complete a capstone, culminating event to mark the end of his/her graduate studies. There are three possibilities that a student’s committee may consider as they create the capstone event:• If the student has earned credit by completing an applied project, the capstone event may be a written and/or oral defense of that applied project.• If the student has taken only coursework for the degree, the committee may choose to develop an examination that captures the essence of the MEng degree focus and represents a major portion of the student's coursework. • As a third possibility, the student may be asked to makea presentation incorporating what was learned duringthe program, integration of these ideas, and reflection of how this learning will be applied to the job.In all three cases, the com mittee has the authority to grade the capstone event as pass or fail. Students are allowed two chances to pass this requirement.E VALUATION OF THE P ROGRAMSuccesses – Student interest and course development Given the limited amount of advertisement and recruiting effort, student interest in the program has been phenomenal. There have been over 155 applicants to the program since its inception, with 100 students admitted. The program celebrated its first seven graduates in the Fall 2000. To date, there have been 16 graduates, two who took all of their coursework from a distance. Table 1 provides current data regarding the students in the MEng program.TABLE 1S TUDENT A DMISSION, G RADUATION, AND E NROLLMENT D ATA Collaborating school ASU NAU UA Admitted to date 11 50 23 Graduated to date 2 4 10 Spring 2002 home institution enrollments:Total 11 34 23 Employed as full-time engineers 9 15 21 Taking courses at a collaborating school 1 7 6Though designed to support the needs of Arizona engineers, there has never been an intent to limit enrollment to in-state students. There are currently 9 out-of-state students and 5 international students in the program. As corporate partnerships develop state boundaries will give way to corporate locations and these numbers are expected to increase as necessary to support their employees.As improved support and registration services are experienced, due to the program’s partnership with Arizona Regents University, the number of students taking courses at a collaborating school will increase substantially.In the spring of 1999 the MEng program offered seven web delivered courses; an additional fifteen web delivered courses were added for the fall 1999 and Spring 2000 semesters. Today, the program boasts a total of over 50 web courses available for delivery by the three universities.Weaknesses – Lack of Brand Image and of SeamlessStudent ServicesThe desired perception of the Tri-University MEng is:• A quality program with real value to its constituents. • A program designed by and managed by line faculty. • A program taught by the ‘best’ faculty in the State. • A means to achieve significant career advancement. • A means to obtain CEU/PDH requirements for registration and certification.All of these must be formally addressed as the program matures. However, the budget for brand image development has been very small due to on-going engineering college budget constraints and the absence of an external infusion of resources. The plan used to work-around this weakness is to encourage industry partners to provide advertisement for the program, as well as to promote the visits of the program representatives within their corporations. In addition, the program is marketed through the use of brochures, a website, and publication media (for example: advertisements in The Technical Newsletter, a direct mailing to all registered engineers in Arizona; press releases from the collaborating institutions to local news, etc.).The MEng approach to branding is to establish a perception of the program based upon the following tag line and attributes:‘World Class Engineering Education at a Distance’This includes emphasis on:• High quality distance education taught by tenured and tenure track faculty from Arizona’s three universities. • “World Class” engineering niche programs of study. • Competitive pricing in comparison to other high quality on-line programs.Even though the market demands a higher capacity, the program is not ready to support a larger student population.A lengthy and complex procedure for application, lack of information channels between departments, and a complex registration procedure are some of the issues that currently make the program less attractive for the student aspirant.After analysis of the current situation, an on-line, integrated, seamless, student services system to provide the link between students and the participating colleges is an absolute must. Its function is to interact with each of the different systems, retrieve and feed information to them, and perform as the student’s portal to access remote resources and services. Many issues dealing with technical, organizational, and systems considerations have been designed and validated by expert opinions during the analysis and modeling phases of the system.Opportunities - Proposed Blocks of Students Advertising an ‘anytime’, ‘anyplace’ distance education, program is very complex and expensive. It consumes much time by all members of the program team – especially if it is done one student at a time. An alternative being considered is the ‘block of students’ notion that would address the audience as the corporate clusters of Arizona, rather than as individual students.There are very large needs for talented professi onals in key strategic industrial clusters. Specific needs have been articulated in transportation, information systems, telecommunications, semiconductor fabrication, optics, environmental management, etc. A strategy being adopted by the MEng program is to offer focused programs to companies as special benefits for key employees.This strategic scenario focuses on the economic needs of the state and provides the MEng program with a direct measure of its economic impact. Finally, it provides strategic corporate sponsors with avenues to offer life-long learning and career change opportunities to key employees on an on-going, guaranteed basis without forcing the employees to relocate or commute.Economically, the block approach makes sense and analysis indicates that placing 12 students into a MEng program block is less expensive for a company than hiring 2 new employees from the outside. This has the added benefits of upgrading the skill sets of current employees and minimizing the cultural disruption caused by bringing in new hires while existing talent is left untapped.The ‘block of students’ plan is to offer 6-12 seats per year per company per curriculum for a set fee. For example, Corporation A may wish to acquire one corporate slot of 12 seats in the Information Systems Applications program for an annual fee of $B. They would do this on a rolling three-year commitment basis. It is anticipated that 3 to 4 corporate sponsors per curriculum (36-48 students) is adequate for a self-sufficient program.S UMMARY AND C ONCLUSIONSThe MEng Program was built as a unique collaboration of the three state universities: Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona. The overarching goal of the MEng program is to meet the advanced educational needs of part-time students in full-time employment in Arizona’s (and the nation’s) engineering enterprises. The MEng degree offers a variety of academic venues spanning the range of both traditional and customized areas of study. Courses are on the web and 84 students are currently studying in the program.With strong support from the Arizona Board of Regents and from local industry, the program is expected (1) to grow in size and stature, (2) to provide superlative engineering graduate education for employment-bound students, and (3) to serve as a model for collaborative education efforts among engineering universities.R EFERENCES[1] COSEPUP, Reshaping the Graduate Education of Scientists andEngineers, Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, 1995. [2] NRC, Engineering Education: Designing and Adaptive System, Boardon Engineering Education report, 1995.[3] ASEE, “Engineering Education for a Changing World,” a joint projectby the Engineering Dean’s Council and Corporate Roundtable, 1994.[4] NSF, Systemic Engineering Education Reform: An Action Agenda,recommendations of a workshop convened by the NSF Engineering Directorate, July 1995.[5] Social Research Laboratory, Northern Arizona University Master ofEngineering Advisory Council- Member Survey and Focus Groups, SRL NAU, May 1998.[6] JACME2T Engineering Market Research Survey, July 1997. Availableby request from: /jacmet .[7] Eibeck, P., J. Higle, D. Jankowski, and V. Johnson, “A CollaborativeMaster of Engineering Program”, Proceedings of the Frontiers in Education Conference, Puerto Rico, November 1999.[8] Salisbury, David, “Web master’s: Online degree to debut in fall,”Stanford Online Report, July 29, 1998.[9] Texas Tech University, College of Engineering Distance Learningweb page: [10] University of Wisconsin-Madison, College of Engineering, “Newmaster’s program for practicing engineers”, Perspective, vol. 25, no.1, Fall 1998.[11] Karelis, Charles, “Education Technology and Cost Control: FourModels”, Syllabus: New Directions in Education Technology, vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 20-28, February 1999.。