Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Engineering Technology Programs And Technical Standards: Investigating Library Access And Course Integration, Margaret Phillips, Paul B Mcpherson, Danielle Leclerc

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Due to ABET accreditation requirements and industry expectations, integrating technical standards into Engineering Technology (ET) curricula is crucial for student success. However, previous studies have shown that faculty report access and knowledge challenges in working to integrate standards into ET course content. Additionally, academic librarians have long acknowledged there are many issues with providing access to standards to campus users, such as high costs and extensive digital rights management (DRM) restrictions. The purpose of this study is to conduct an environmental scan of library websites at institutions with ET programs to investigate library-provided access to standards and to survey ET …

Initial Study Of Information Literacy Content In Engineering And Technology Job Postings, Margaret Phillips, Dave Zwicky, Jing Lu

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The goal of this research category work-in-progress study is to investigate the information literacy needs and expectations of employers who hire new engineering and technology graduates, through content analysis of job postings. It seeks to answer two questions: (1) Which information sources do employers expect engineering and technology graduates to know and to use on the job and (2) in what ways are new engineering and technology hires expected to interact with information?

A collection of 1502 entry-level job postings aimed at undergraduate engineering and engineering technology students was gathered from a university career center database for the time period …

Integrating Technical Standards Into Et Curricula To Meet Abet Standards And Industry Needs, Paul B Mcpherson, Margaret Phillips, Kyle Reiter

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

With technical standards affecting nearly every aspect of our daily lives, from computers to the components and materials used in car engines, it is critical that undergraduate students are educated on the importance of standards and provided with opportunities to locate and apply relevant technical standards to real world situations. In addition, with ABET accreditation requiring students to have a “basic understanding and familiarity with,” and experience “using” codes and standards, faculty need to consider how such material can be naturally integrated into the curriculum.

At Purdue University, education about codes and standards has been integrated into the mechanical engineering …

Standards Are Everywhere: A Freely Available Introductory Online Educational Program On Standardization For Product Development, Margaret Phillips, Michael Fosmire, Paul B Mcpherson

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The collaboration between the Purdue Libraries and the Purdue Polytechnic Institute on standards education goes back to the 1980’s.[i] With a shared goal of preparing students for success after graduation, the Libraries and (then) Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) devised activities and instruction to show students that they will need to be able to find information ‘beyond the textbook’ to solve the problems they will face in the workplace. They will need specific information that relates to their particular circumstance, whether it is a material property, production technique, or an industry standard.

In recent years, the Libraries and Polytechnic …

Information Literacy In Engineering Technology Education: A Case Study, Margaret Phillips, Dave Zwicky

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Information literacy is a vital component of engineering and engineering technology programs, as evidenced by its alignment with the engineering design process, and as required by ABET, the body that accredits all engineering and many engineering technology undergraduate programs. However, information literacy in engineering technology and applied engineering curricula is understudied when compared with information literacy in engineering programs. This paper describes a case study of information literacy integration into an undergraduate mechanical engineering technology design course, with a focus on patent information and patent searching. Online pre- and post-assessment data for four semesters were analyzed, showing improvements in student …