Work in progress - design and creation of longitudinal assessment study on the effectiveness of engagement

An emphasis of Western Kentucky University is student engagement which is defined in a variety of ways by different groups across campus. The Department of Engineering at WKU is home to three ABET accredited program that have missions of project-based engineering education. The three programs in the department; civil engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering; have created individual assessment programs in order to continuously improve the programs. Project courses and design experiences play an integral role in the delivery of the project based courses at WKU. The mission of Western Kentucky University Electrical Engineering (EE) Program is to produce graduates who have been engaged in a variety of project experiences throughout the curriculum. In the Western Kentucky University EE program, student engagement is achieved through project-based activities. The objective of this project is to develop a longitudinal study that will examine the effectiveness of engagement through the project based curriculum. An important question to be answered is whether or not project based engineering is effective in student learning. Through the results of this study, it is hoped that student learning through projects will be improved.