AN INTEGRATIVE FIRST YEAR CIVIL ENGINEERING COURSE Initiation la pratique professionnelle

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AN INTEGRATIVE FIRST YEAR CIVIL ENGINEERING
COURSE Initiation à la pratique
professionnelle 

• Kenneth Johns
• Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada

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Common curriculum reform goals

• Increase perseverance
• Build-in professionalism, its ethos and values
• Integrate learnings
• Include transverse or soft skills, including
  teamwork
• Apply theory immediately or learn-while-doing
  (e.g. PBL)
• Contextualise learning

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Our context(Québec)

• CEGEP system two college  years after
  american-style high school
• (similar to Bacc International)
• Co-op or sandwich program
• High admission standards

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Some particularities of Civil Engineering

• Often done outdoors!
• Infrastructures, rather than products
• Fractioned Construction industry
• Projects under contract adversarial
  relationships
• Design practices
• Relationship to Environment and to International
  Development

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Student needs and doubts

• Have I made the right choice?
• What is Civil Engineering anyway?!!
• If I do stick with this,
• Who will I work for?
• Where will I work?
• What are my opportunities?
• Will this work be compatible with my values?
• Will this be worth a big part of my life?

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Induction

• Induction is the successful transition into
  university
• Good Practice
• Good mix of challenge and reassurance
• Group activities
• Activities integrated into the academic program

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Initiation à la pratique professionnelle
(IPP)GOALS

• Present, make this career real
• Prepare for first work placement
• Begin work on students personal goals
• Contextualise learnings from other courses, and
• Include development of Teamwork and Communication
  skills

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IPP 1Career preparation

• 6 former students present their careers thus far
• Men, women
• Public and private sector
• Small and large firms
• Outdoors and indoors
• Design
• Management

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IPP 2History (!)

• A history of building materials and technologies
• Masonry, wood, iron and steel, concrete, tensile
  materials
• Who was doing our job
• Impacts on society

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IPP 3Writing exercises

• Which visitor was most inspiring as a model for
  you?
• Work placement crisis scenario
• A private testing contract possibility
• bid,
• contract details
• claim for extra payment
• A note to your boss

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IPP 4Technical report

• Recent examples
• Hong Kong Airport
• The Roman Road system
• Eurotunnel
• Suez Canal
• Content
• project planning and budget,
• politics,
• execution,
• impacts, and
• a student-chosen major Theme

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IPP 4Report contd

• Objectives
• Technical report writing
• Oral presentation
• Teamwork, and
• What civil engineers deal with

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IPP 4 Report contd

• done in teams of four, imposed by staff
• Myers-Briggs is used
• day of intentional team-building games
• The report is in a formal, realistic technical
  format and is presented 6 months later to a jury
  of academic staff

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IPP 5Job Site Vocabulary

• What is that half-buried concrete thing?
• Where and how do they make that big steel girder?
• What is that big piece of equipment?

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IPP 6Construction management

• Whos who on the job site?
• Who are they paid by?
• What are their responsibilities and concerns?
• To whom may I speak?

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IPP 7Ethics

• What kind of situation can develop?
• What are the issues?
• How will I decide what to do?
• Minimal theoretical notions

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IPP 8Life-cycle analysis

• Life cycle concepts and cost
• Green building
• Environmental stewardship and engineering

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IPPTo Sum Up

• Involves the precocious presentation of subjects
  usually seen much later!
• Encourages
• Eyes to be opened, awareness
• AHA! Insights
• Motivation
• Mature learners.

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Impact of IPP and our reformDrop-out rates
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Comments about IPP

•  It definitely helped me understand what Civil
  Engineering is all about
• It made sense of other subjects
• It made me glad I chose Civil Engineering

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Some survey scores

• Score 8.4 on 10 for
• This course fostered a sense of belonging to the
  programme, the department and the profession
• Score 8.9 on 10 for
• It made real and visible my career possibilities
  in Civil engineering, and helped me begin
  thinking about my professional future

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Conclusions

• Most or all of the Departments objectives are
  met, for most of the students
• Retention and motivation of the students is very
  high

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A comment we hear from staff, and former students

• I wish I had been offered a course like this
  when I was a student!

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Merci!

• Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada