ENG 470: Engineering Management

About the Textbooks

I used two OER textbooks for this course. Management Basics was the primary resource while Corporate Social Responsibility was a secondary resource.

Management Basics

Description:  

This book outlines the challenging role of the manager. The main topics such as planning, organizing, leading and controlling are covered, as well as issues such as competitive advantage, team structure, business ethics, trust and flowcharting.

I would primarily use this text as an outside resource for students. I would use HBR articles and case studies to present topics and examples while the text and associated reading assignments were available as additional resources. I took the topics from this text to guide my discussions through the semester.

I required the students to use reflective reasoning throughout the course where students would integrate their commercial cruise or internship experiences into class/assignment discussions.

Author:

• Susan Quinn - Bissett School of Business
  

Formats:  

The book is only available as a PDF.

Supplemental resources:

Supplementary questions and PowerPoint slides are provided by the author.in the Description section on the textbook download page.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Description:  

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been in existence for a while but recently it has become central to the strategic decision making of every organization. So every organization has a CSR policy and produces a report of its activities. It has become central to the strategic management of every organization. It is a complex subject and there are a number of complex issues involved in developing CSR strategies and policies. This book introduces the reader to the issues involved and their application in strategic decision making.

Defining CSR, CSR Principles, Stakeholders, and Strategy were the topics extracted from this text to support SWOT Analysis principles, strategic vision, and managerial roles within the Management Basics text.

Students were encouraged to identify CSR activities (both internal and external to the organization) within specific case studies ranging from Tesoro banning smoking within their facilities to the BP Gulf oil spill and assess those activities as they relate to corporate strategy. These exercises were good for senior Engineering Technology students to explore how they can contribute to corporate strategy from an entry-level position.

Authors:

• David Crowther - De Montfort University, UK
• Guler Aras - Yıldız Technical University, Turkey

Formats:  

The book is only available as a PDF.

Supplemental resources:

There are no supplemental resources associated with this Book.

Additional Open Educational Resources:

The following news articles are examples that were used to reinforce topics discussed in class. 

• 7 Mistakes Most First-Time Managers Make At Least Once - Forbes
• Making Sure Your Employees Succeed - HBR

License: 

Both of these books are copyrighted, but they are  free to use for personal use and college and university use.

About the Course

ENG 470: Engineering Management

Description:  

The course begins with a brief introduction to the engineering profession and then focuses on total quality management, personnel management and communications, project management and legal concerns. Topics such as professional liability and ethics will provide the student with a sense of his or her responsibility. In addition, numerous case studies enhance student understanding.

Prerequisites: Junior Class Standing, ELEC 20: Critical Thinking Elective

GE credit: 3

Learning outcomes:

• Students will be exposed to organizational structure, explore other managerial supportive roles and be able to describe the purpose of those organizational functions.
• Students will become familiar with various managerial and leadership skills and use these skills to research and assess applicable case studies.
• Students will learn about project management, systems engineering, lean operations, and their respective professional organizations.
• Students will understand an example employer’s annual review process, how to document recommendations for the next review cycle, and what it means to be a professional at Kaizen.

Students taking this course are from two primary majors: Marine Engineering Technology (MET) and Facilities Engineering Technology (FET). The course is taught during the Fall semester of their senior year, but is available for students to take once they are junior class standing.

Curricular changes:

This was the first time I taught the course. I was unable to locate previous instruction materials, coursework, lecture notes. The only information I had to develop the class was the catalog course description and the previous instructor's syllabus. I was essentially starting from scratch and therefore didn't really make any "changes." 

In developing the course schedule, I asked students what they would desire to learn from their only course dedicated to engineering management. I attached the Course Topical Outline that was intentionally excluded from the syllabus. Right up front, I had a lot of student support for the class because they were invested in the topics to be discussed inside the class as well as several homework assignments that addressed a couple of the topics (such as conflict resolution and a case study for a homework assignment).

Teaching and learning impacts:

Collaborate more with other faculty: Yes
Use wider range of teaching materials: Yes 
Student learning improved: Unsure
Student retention improved: Unsure
Any unexpected results: Yes 

I worked with a previous instructor to identify pertinent topics.

There were textbooks, class discussions, breakout groups, individual/team case studies, lecture, PowerPoints, and videos used. 

I'm not sure what the previous retention rates were. I only had one student out of 56 fail the class because course materials were not submitted.

The students requested more time in class for student discussions surrounding student case study presentations.  

Sample assignments and syllabus:

I wanted to provide two assignments that were related to the Management Basics textbook. Both assignments were created to be reflective applications of the topics discussed in the textbook.

SMART Goal Assignment
Here is the SMART Goal Assignment I gave to students that includes supplemental "How To" information.

Organizational Structure Assignment
Here is a good reflective homework assignment where students are assessing the organizational structure of a company they worked for or desire to work for.

Engineering Management Course Topics
Here is the list of topics discussed in class.

Engineering Management Syllabus
Here is the ENG-470 Syllabus used for the Fall 2015 semester.

Textbook Adoption

OER Adoption Process

I identified that the previously used text was too expensive ($270 MSRP) for an introductory undergrad course. The previously used text and other recommended textbooks left some topics out that should be included for the only managerial course required in the Engineering Technology curriculum.

I began my research for general management materials as engineering management specific resources were few in number and often covered topics that were irrelevant for the industries these students will primarily work in.

Once I found the general management text to be used in the course, I then began my search for supporting information for Corporate Social Responsibility, Organizational Structure/Culture, Operations Management, and Project Management.

With a basic outline of topics to be discussed, I began creating assignments to be used throughout the course with several back-up alternative case studies if I run into problems with topics/participation during the semester. I referenced trade/industry/leadership magazines/journals and the two free textbooks that I used for the course. The external magazine/journal articles were acquired through the library and were either digital or provided by hardcopy in the library.

I used our learning management system, Moodle, to track student participation. I extracted all of the sections I wanted the students to read from the PDF files so I could track the participation each week. It was easy for me to correct a lagging student after the first couple weeks of no participation.

Student access:  

The only way students accessed the text was via the free PDF. I offered students the opportunity to contact me if they required a paper copy of the textbook, but no student requested this service.

Student feedback or participation:

I never received any written comments specifically about the use of a free text book, but I had many of students freaking out about buying a one-time use $270 textbook on the first day of class. When they walked into class and found out about my AL$ grant, they were beyond ecstatic. One of my multiple choice student review questions asks the students on a scale from 1-5 (5 = strongly agree, 1 = strongly disagree) if they regularly make use of online, handout and/or textbook materials. Out of 49 student responses, the average was 4.3.

Ryan Storz, M.S.

I am a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the California State University Maritime Academy. I have a broad knowledge base and have taught the following courses over the past year and a half: Properties of Materials Lab, HVAC Lab, Instrumentation Lab, Power Engineering Lecture & Lab, Introduction to Power Plants, and Engineering Management.

I strive to deliver course content that is not only relevant to a student's academic endeavors, but also to their professional careers. This requires clear delivery of course materials with varying types of student participation activities all the while understanding where this material may fit into their future professions.

I am looking at studying the Ship-to-Shore utility interface of Cal Maritime's Training Ship Golden Bear and how that might impact future campus micro-grid operations. 

Reflections:

As this was the first semester running through the course, I have several recommendations for the future.

1. When reading is assigned prior to class, assign a pre-class quiz using the Learning Management System (LMS). This should increase class participation as students are required to complete the reading/quiz prior to class. I encountered several groups of students throughout the semester who didn't participate much due to the students not completing required course readings ahead of time.

2. As I was using multiple resources for the class, after the third week, I began posting all weekly resources to be used inside and outside of class. I would repost these even if they were duplicated. 

3. I need to do more research and collaborate with colleagues to determine the best approach for group case study presentations and class discussions so that I don't burn up a solid 3 days of lecture towards the end of the semester. I had groups of 3-5 in a 40 student class and these presentations consumed a lot of time. I had thought about assigning a group presentation a week, but I feel like the earlier group presentation would lack material depth within their analysis.

4. The students liked researching management examples in engineering trade journals. I might include more of these types of assignments to "mix-and-match" with the other scholarly journal readings that I have assigned.

5. I need to spend more time organizing my LMS page. Due to the immense research required to setup the course content and assignments, my efforts in utilizing the LMS to its full potential were slacking. I intend to create a paperless class where all assignments (except a midterm/final) are to be submitted digitally into the LMS.