Modular approach in development of curriculum for aerospace schools provides flexibility and uniformity

Abstract

The aerospace industry is going through a period of radical change. As products become increasingly complex, engineering technicians must be more specialized, obtaining skills that, until recently, were used only by "pure" engineers. At the same time, the demand for skilled maintenance personnel is growing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the need for aerospace engineering and operations technicians will increase ten percent between 2006 and 2016, compared with a 7 percent overall employment growth in the need for engineering technicians. Furthermore, notwithstanding today's more sophisticated technology, employers are looking for a well-prepared workforce that requires little or no on-site training. Another problem in the aerospace industry is an aging workforce (average age mid 40s or older) that will begin retiring in large numbers in the near future. This reality creates an urgent need for new approaches in two-year aerospace programs. El Camino College, Butler Community College, Oregon Institute of Technology and Purdue University are all developing new model curricula for technicians and engineers in the aerospace industry. These curricula will cover the gamut of the needs for manufacturing technologists in the aerospace industry and will also provide a common fluency in aerospace manufacturing procedures, processes, and terminology. One proposed modular approach allows an instructor to select needed section(s) for any course from available national "pool" of information, with each module including PowerPoint data, Instructor notes, and a student study guide. This approach will make developing new courses or redesigning existing courses easier and more uniform throughout aerospace schools. It is clear that a tradeoff exits: too much modularization suggests lack of cohesion; the reverse suggests lack of flexibility. The modules' development is still in the formative stages with a focus on validating them within a variety of academic contexts. The next phase of activity may involve movement toward certification which would require more curricular cohesion and moving beyond pre-post criterion-referenced testing to standardized tests. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2009.