Integrated civil engineering curriculum: Implementation and management

Although improving the relevance of engineering education through integrated courses has been discussed extensively, less attention has been given to the differences encountered in managing integrated as opposed to more traditional curriculums. Our planning of a new curriculum provided an opportunity for such an examination. Implementation and management issues of Colorado State University's (CSU) four year undergraduate civil engineering curriculum are identified and discussed. These issues include coordination challenges in a large research department, accommodating transfer students, absorbing higher resource costs, defining small group laboratory experiences, recognizing the lack of resource materials for nontraditional courses, including knowledge not within knowledge domains of faculty, rescheduling existing courses to fit within the new curriculum, and preparing teachers for leading the new courses. The department expects to resolve these issues in the next two to three years, and a follow-up paper will describe the lessons learned for the benefit of departments trying to improve design instruction, while adding new material to an already overcrowded curriculum and retaining flexibility for students to graduate in four years. Meanwhile, the challenges in implementing the integrated curriculum should be of interest to those facing similar issues inside academia as well as to their advisors from government and industry.