Development of core concepts and learning outcomes for the introductory transportation course
- Kristen Sanford Bernhardtg(Author),
- Steven Beyerleind(Author),
- Andrea Billa(Author),
- Shashi Nambisanc(Author),
- Ida Van Schalkwykh(Author),
- Rod Turochye(Author)
- aUniversity of Wisconsin (Madison),
- bUniversity of Wyoming,
- cIowa State University,
- dUniversity of Idaho,
- eAuburn University,
- fTexas Christian University
Abstract
In June, 2009, over 60 members of the Transportation Engineering Education community met in Portland, OR to discuss teaching and learning related to transportation engineering. One of the motivations for the conference was to address challenges experienced by faculty teaching the "Introduction to Transportation Engineering" course offered at most institutions and required for the bachelor's degree in civil engineering at many. An outcome of the conference is a working group that is planning a series of activities to develop a set of core concepts and learning outcomes for this introductory transportation course. The goal of this paper is to report on the status of this effort and to stimulate conversation related to learning outcomes in the variety of civil engineering sub-disciplines. Building on existing literature, the group plans to identify and validate a set of key transportation concepts. Following best practices in course design, we will also develop a set of outcomes related to these concepts around which a course could be developed. Further, we expect to identify a minimum set of requirements that ought to be met by any introductory transportation course, as well as a larger set of outcomes and levels of achievement from which instructors would select to be consistent with departmental and institutional missions, and the expertise of the instructor. This paper first summarizes the results of several surveys over time related to transportation course content. It then reviews other initiatives related to developing a set of disciplinary learning outcomes, including the ASCE Body of Knowledge, and discusses frameworks for organizing knowledge and learning outcomes. The paper continues with a description of the efforts of the working group, including some draft knowledge tables for selected transportation topics. Finally, the paper outlines the next steps in the process and proposes some assessment criteria for the effort.