Gateway Vistas

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PI�s Column
Welcome to our second issue of Gateway Vistas. Much has happened since our inaugural issue. We have made great strides in the following primary objectives: Assessment, Professional Development, Diversity, Technology, Sharing & Linking, and Curriculum Implementation. Let me share with you some of the highlights.
Assessment

We continue to lead the way in supporting our members and institutions outside our Gateway Coalition in their journey towards developing, implementing, and institutionalizing a comprehensive assessment program. Our focus over the past few months has been to initiate a structured process by which every engineering department in our Coalition can define its educational objectives and outcomes and link them back to each institution's mission. The definition of these objectives and outcomes is a critical step in developing an effective assessment program. Most importantly, this process will help our institutions to continuously improve the educational environment for both faculty and students. For our total assessment strategy, read Jack McGourty's article on page one.

Professional Development

Over the past few months, we have delivered an aggressive schedule of faculty development seminars and workshops focusing on such issues as student learning outcomes, ABET Criteria 2000, and outcome-driven assessment. Every institution has conducted multiple sessions exposing over 200 faculty and staff to these critical educational issues. Our focus has been largely on assessment-related areas for this year to support our overall goals of institutionalizing continuous improvement in higher education.
Diversity
Each of our institutions has been working hard to create an educational environment that supports all students. Recently, we have re-established our cross-institutional PAL program with a specific emphasis on gathering information on best practices in supporting minorities and women in engineering and providing connectivity resources, programs, and role models. We have charted a team of four people to help us fill in the details on the "state-of-the-art" web-site established last year for faculty and students as well as other initiatives. Additionally, we are in the process of developing a plan that will create linkages with several HBCUs.

Technology

As a Coalition, we have always advocated the use of technology to support and enhance communication and the learning process. Two activities are worth noting. First, we are in the process of restructuring our website. Second, we are proactively encouraging videoconferencing as a way to increase cross-coalition communication and learning transfer. Several examples are the use of this technology in our concurrent engineering program for students and faculty working across institutions, our MYMUP program, and our program that brings experts into the classroom. We also use it administratively and have established bi-monthly Governing Board and quarterly Dean Council videoconferences through the use of our video bridge.
Linking and Sharing
Of course, sharing is always a primary objective of any kind of coalition. We are currently working with several publishers to assemble many of our products into deliverables that can be used by educators and students. We have categorized our work into four product areas: Learning Tools, Freshman Experience, Concurrent Engineering, and Special Technical Issues. We have had outside subject matter experts review all products and provide us with a plan on how to best work with publishers and distributors. Over the next few months, we expect several products to be in the works.
Curriculum Implementation

Certainly, much of our efforts in the first five years focused on the development of innovative curriculum. We have gone through the phases of development, beta testing, and in some cases, expansion. Each of our institutions is in the throes of expanding these innovations throughout the freshman year and beyond to the upper division. We are supporting these expansion efforts by providing additional resources as needed.

We welcome Arthur Glenn, a recently retired GE Executive who has been involved in the engineering education reform movement, as the new Chair of our National Visiting Committee. The next meeting of the NVC is scheduled for April 1 and will include the Governing Board and Deans as well. I want to particularly thank Dr. Casimir Skrzypczak for chairing our Committee during our first five years and look forward to his continued advice as he remains a member of the Committee in our new program phase. While he has taken on new and exciting responsibilities, he continues his interest in Gateway and will still be a part of our team.

As you can see, a lot is happening. I appreciate all your efforts as we work towards each of our goals.¨

For more information, contact:
Eli Fromm
Gateway Central
c/o Drexel University
Room 228 Main
32nd and Chestnut Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 895-2201
[email protected]

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