Effective Instructional Practices in Continuing Engineering Education

Currently, higher educational programs have been/are being shifted to mostly remote modes of learning either through live online (synchronous), asynchronous online, or hybrid, combining in-person with online instruction. Remotely delivered Continuing Engineering Education (CEE) can involve challenges that do not exist for in-person classes. Moving from in-person to remote instruction sometimes necessitates a redesign of content and assessment, as well as the mode of instruction. Regardless of the remote mode, effective instruction requires a common, consistent approach to the subject and strategies which engage learners in meaningful ways that overcome the socially isolated nature of remote learning. Another concurrent shift in higher education programming involves the 60-Year Curriculum construct as a grand strategy of particular relevance to CEE and to new instructional practices that involve remote learning as well as other trends and innovations. This chapter is designed to address the practice of CEE, the design of effective instruction that provides opportunities for developing and improving the knowledge, skills, and engagement of learners, and their ability, when appropriate, to affect changes in practice in the workplace. A framework is developed that guides the design of content and assessment that maximizes learning, and is aligned with each other and with specified learning outcomes. Assessments are designed to provide feedback as well as measure success. Synchronous and asynchronous engagement strategies are suggested for engagement activities that provide effective engagement between learners as well as between instructor and learners. Against this backdrop, instructional and DEI implications for faculty are explored arising from three components of the 60-year Curriculum. Alternative credentials, VR/AR/MX and engineering degree apprenticeships are higher education innovations that portent new effective instructional practices for faculty to consider as the academy continues to produce an educated and upskilled CEE workforce that is diverse, equitymined and inclusive and which has the ability to meet Industry 4.0 needs during careers spanning 60 years.