PASSING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF ENGINEERING EXAMINATION AS A GRADUATION REQUIREMENT IN A GENERAL ENGINEERING PROGRAM: LESSONS LEARNED

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PASSING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF ENGINEERING EXAMINATION AS A GRADUATION REQUIREMENT IN A GENERAL ENGINEERING PROGRAM: LESSONS LEARNED

The University of Tennessee (UT) at Martin offers a multi-disciplinary general engineering program with concentrations in civil, electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering. The Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E) program was first accredited by ABET/EAC in 1999, and since program inception, a requirement for graduation is that students in each concentration must successfully pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Examination. In this paper, the authors discuss several aspects of interest related to problems, challenges, and future efforts associated with maintaining a 100% pass rate on this nationally administered examination. A brief overview of the program is presented, with emphasis on the multidisciplinary nature of the program that supports and predicts successful passing of the examination independent of engineering concentration. The history behind requiring passing the examination is presented followed by an overview of the performance during the early years of the program and the program support mechanisms that were available to the students. As the number of students and graduates has increased, the first time pass rates have degraded. This paper examines a number of initiatives that have been implemented in the engineering program to increase these rates. The results of a detailed study of all students that have taken the examination are also presented. This study was performed to attempt to identify accurate quantitative predictors of both success and failure on the exam and to make improvements to the program to insure that all students successfully pass the exam. The UT Martin engineering program makes extensive use of FE examination results for its ABET continuous assessment and improvement process. This paper also includes a discussion of how the detailed quantitative results from the testing results may be used as an external metric for program outcome assessment and performance improvement. History The history of engineering and engineering technology on the University of Tennessee at Martin campus extends back to the 1930’s when the school was a junior college. The University was known as The University of Tennessee Junior College, and the engineering program consisted of the first two years towards a baccalaureate degree in the student’s chosen field of engineering. The University became a four-year college in 1951. Most degree programs were transformed into full four-year baccalaureate programs at that time. The engineering program remained a twoyear transfer program with most students transferring to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. In the fall of 1967, a formal proposal was developed by the UT Martin Department of Engineering and submitted to the College of Engineering at Knoxville for an engineering degree with majors from one of six areas: graphics, electrical power, electronics, industrial, mechanical, and surveying. In the fall of 1969, the University of Tennessee system approval was granted for a four-year engineering technology degree. The six engineering majors were reduced to three technology majors: electrical, mechanical, and surveying. (The surveying major later became a P ge 11984.2 major in civil engineering technology.) The Tennessee Higher Education Commission granted approval to offer the degree Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology the following spring. The program received ABET/TAC accreditation in 1976 and maintained the accreditation until it was discontinued in 1997. 1 In early 1994, at the request of UT Martin constituents, a study team was appointed to assess the need by employers and the demand by students for engineering technology and engineering at UT Martin. A final recommendation was made in January 1995 to terminate the three engineering technology degree programs and to replace them with a single B.S.E degree. The program was to be built with no separable majors and was to be consistent with goals set forth in the ASEE report, Engineering Education for a Changing World, (Fall 1994). 2 The University of Tennessee system also imposed the requirement that the program be unique and different from any other engineering program in the state. In order to meet this requirement and with the full support of the UT Martin engineering faculty and central administration, passing the Engineer in Training (now the Fundamentals of Engineering) examination was set as a degree requirement. Inclusion of this requirement was vital to the approval of the program. At the time of the program development, no consideration was given to using the FE scores as a program improvement tool, although it was viewed as a means to validate the content and rigor of the program. Since the B.S.E program was developed as a general engineering program, including the passing of the general FE examination was consistent with the goal of graduating engineers who would have a broad understanding of the basic fundamentals of engineering. The Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree was approved by the University of Tennessee system in June 1995 and received final approval by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission in July 1996. Students had been allowed to take a limited number of junior courses as the final program approval was sought. This resulted in the first graduates from the program in May 1997. The program received ABET/EAC accreditation in 1999. This accreditation was granted under pre-EC2000 guidelines. The ABET Assessment Committee was formed by the UT Martin Engineering Department in the fall of 2001 with the charge of preparing for the next accreditation visit in 2004-2005. The complete overhaul of accreditation criteria that resulted in the EC2000 Guidelines necessitated the development of program objectives and outcomes. The department’s adopted outcomes and objectives are monitored by analysis of the FE results, alumni surveys, employer surveys, and departmentally developed assessment tools. The FE results are used extensively to monitor the ability of UT Martin engineering graduates to perform basic engineering and economic analysis. Secondary use involves using the results to monitor for a basic understanding of ethics. This paper concentrates on the use of the FE examination scores and problems associated with the use of those scores. Curriculum The total hours required for the B.S.E degree are 128. In 1999, concentration area electives were approved and published in the University catalog. The total number of elective hours required was set at 21 hours at that time. At the urging of faculty, students, and employers, the designation on a student’s transcript of an area of concentration was also approved. The four P ge 11984.3 concentrations of civil, electrical, industrial, and mechanical were now established as the de facto majors within the degree. The number of concentration elective hours was increased in 2001 to 24 hours and again increased in 2004 to a total of 27. In addition to the electives in a concentration area, each student is required to complete a yearlong senior research/design sequence of four semester hours. This sequence allows the student to work on an engineering design problem (project) requiring integration of previous knowledge and possibly the acquisition of new knowledge relevant to the concentration area. The remaining 97 semester hours are comprised of 45 semester hours of engineering core courses and 51 semester hours of general education requirements. 3 Table 1 lists the topics covered on the general FE examination prior to the recent test modification that became effective in the fall of 2005, and the corresponding courses and number of credit hours in the program. Table 1. General FE Exam Topics and Corresponding Program Required Courses FE Topic Program Courses Total Credit Hours Chemistry General Chemistry (CHEM 121 & 121L) 4.0 Mathematics Calculus Sequence, Differential Equations, and Probability & Statistics (MATH 251, 252, 320, ENGR 315 and ENGR 311) 18.0 Solid Mechanics Physics of Kinematics & Kinetics (PHYS 220 & 220L), Statics (ENGR 121), Strength of Materials (ENGR 220), and Dynamics (ENGR 241) 13.0 Fluid Mechanics and Thermal Sciences Thermodynamics (ENGR 340) and Fluid Dynamics (ENGR 341) 6.0 Electricity, Magnetism, and Computers Physics of Electricity and Magnetism (PHYS 221 & 221L), Digital Logic (ENGR 231 & 231L) and Analog Circuits (ENGR 232 & 232L) 11.0 Materials and their Properties Engineering Materials (ENGR 310 & 310L) 3.0 Engineering Economy Engineering Economy (ENGR 380) 3.0 Note that all engineering specialties are required to complete all courses in this table. With the recent modifications to the FE exam, biology and heat transfer are now included in the test. Currently, students are not required to take a biology course, and only the mechanical engineering students are required to take a course in heat transfer. However, even with this modification to the FE exam, students completing the engineering core courses should be well prepared to pass the general form of the Fundamentals of Engineering Examination. FE Examination Performance Trends Engineering students matriculating at UT Martin were first allowed to take the FE examination in the fall of 1996. Because the program was new, there was a small number of students that were graduating, thus there was a small number taking and passing the exam. The students maintained a 100% pass rate for the first several semesters. Obviously, the University as a whole took great pride in this excellent accomplishment, and these early years of unblemished success P ge 11984.4 set a high standard. As the number of students in the program increased, some students were not successful on their first attempt at the examination. Figure 1 shows the number of students that took the FE exam and the pass rate of those students that were first time takers, for each semester beginning in the fall of 1996 through the most recent exam in the fall of 2005

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