Coursera’s chief academic strategist & former U of T provost, Vivek Goel, gives keynote at EngEd launch (Photo: Sydney Goodfellow).
The University of Toronto (U of T) has launched EngEd, a collaborative program in engineering education. The program, targeting masters and PhD students, will research and teach learning tactics aimed for the engineering profession. Additionally, new technology like the Internet will be applied to create new teaching methods.
Dean Cristina Amon said, “The EngEd research findings will contribute the knowledge we need to develop pedagogical innovations and to inspire the next generation of engineering educators.”
EngEd’s topic focus includes engineering training, teamwork, knowledge communities, the engineering culture, career readiness, design, application, systems, qualifications, problem solving and constraints. Students will learn the application of educational theories, engineering concepts and how to apply both to stimulate learning.
Vivek Goel, Coursera Chief Academic Strategist and former U of T Provost, conducted the keynote address to launch EngEd. He said, “Every time a new technology is introduced in the classroom—printing press, videos, etc.—it forces us to re-evaluate what we’re doing as professors and how we’re spending time with students.”
The program was first posed by a school task force led by chemical engineering professor Greg Evans. He said, “By focusing on cross-disciplinary collaboration, we look forward to wonderful new ideas and insights that enhance engineering education for generations to come.”
Evans added, “We can’t use the educational methods of yesterday to build the engineers of tomorrow … We hope the EngEd will become one of the many wonderful features that distinguishes our university.”
The program is offered from both U of T Engineering and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. It will include electives, seminars, courses in instructional design, and a thesis focusing on the junctures between engineering and education.
PhD student Patricia Sheridan said, “Through EngEd, we hope to cultivate engineers that are more holistic, global thinkers … This program provides that breadth without sacrificing the technical competencies that engineers are known for.”
Sheridan adds, “[Engineers] as critical and practical thinkers, we ask two questions of our teachers: why do I care? And what can I do with [this information]? It is not enough to present theory to an engineering student in a vacuum—we have to see how we can use that theory to make an impact.”
In my opinion, she makes a good point. After all, how many lectures did you sleep through in your engineering classes learning dry, disorganized material you would never see again? Perhaps it’s time professors were trained in teaching pedagogy like their high school and elementary system counterparts. Perhaps EngEd is the first step to this way of thinking. I guess we’ll see.