THE OLIN COLLEGE CURRICULUM: AN OVERVIEW

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THE OLIN COLLEGE CURRICULUMAN OVERVIEW
Michael E. Moody Vice President for Academic
Affairs and Dean of Faculty F.W. Olin Professor
of Mathematics
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THE ORIGINS OF THE COLLEGE

• Engineer, entrepreneur, baseball player
• F.W. Olin Foundation, highly respected for 50
  years
• 72 Buildings on 57 campuses

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SOME LANDMARKS

• Initial gift and charter
• 1997, 200M
• Total gift 450M
• First employee 1999
• Groundbreaking 1999
• First faculty 2000
• Partner year 2001 (30)
• First class 2002 (304575)
• First graduation, May 21, 2006

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SOME UNIQUE FEATURES

• No disciplinary departments
• Full-tuition merit scholarships
• No tenure
• Desire to create culture of continual improvement
  and innovation

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• THE FACULTY AND STAFF IN 2000

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TODAY WE HAVE 135 EMPLOYEES
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ATTRACTING STUDENTS
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CURRICULUM ORIGINS

• Intense discussion over the years 2000-2002, and
  that continue today
• What is an engineer?
• What do engineers need to know?
• What are the critical skills and competencies
  needed?
• What experiences should engineering students
  have?
• What are the pedagogies that are most effective?
• How can we best achieve the mission of
  innovation, and of educating engineers with
  entrepreneurial skills and with an appreciation
  of the social and humanistic contexts of their
  work?
• First curriculum proposal Spring 2002
• Inauguration Fall 2002
• Revision Spring 2004
• Mandated review (expiration date) Spring 2007.
• Curriculum revisions (2008-2009)

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THE OLIN TRIANGLE
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THE LEARNING CONTINUUM
learning n 1 the cognitive process of
acquiring skill or knowledge "the
child's acquisition of language" syn
acquisition 2 profound scholarly knowledge
syn eruditeness, erudition,
learnedness, scholarship
continuum n a continuous nonspatial whole
or extent or succession in which no part
or portion is distinct or distinguishable
from adjacent parts
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CURRICULUM PHILOSOPHIES, A SUMMARY

• Learn by doing!
• For the things we have to learn before we can do
  them, we learn by doing them.
• -Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics
• Extensive (but not exclusive) project-based
  pedagogy
• Integrated, coordinated and interdisciplinary
  curricular themes
• Entrepreneurial thinking and practice
• Design as creative, innovative, distinctive
  engineering process
• Engineering in social and technical contexts
• Importance of the liberal arts
• Rigorous fundamentals
• Communication, teamwork
• Authenticity of experience and assessment of
  outcomes
• Olin Expo each semester

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MODES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
AT OLIN, WE TEACH, AND STUDENTS LEARN, IN A
VARIETY OF MODES

• HANDS-ON PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
• LABORATORY-BASED EXPERIENCES
• SEMINAR-DISCUSSION
• INTERACTIVE LECTURE
• STUDENT-BASED INDEPENDENT LEARNING
• TEAM-BASED INDEPENDENT LEARNING
• INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM MENTORSHIP BY FACULTY

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MAJORS AND CONCENTRATIONS

• Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Engineering (with concentrations)
• Bioengineering
• Computing
• Materials Science
• Systems
• Self-designed

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DESIGN INSPIRED BY NATURE
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ARTIFACTS
PEOPLE
NATURE
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ENTREPRENEURSHIP
A focus on entrepreneurship as a process of
fulfilling human needs and creating value.
Students acquire entrepreneurial skills through
active experiences in the formation of small
companies and the assessment of opportunity in
projects, and through courses.
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The Olin Foundry is the student business
incubator.

• The Foundry provides
• Advising through Babson and Olin
• Funding
• Space for offices and events
• External advisory board

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ARTS, HUMANITIES, SOCIAL SCIENCES
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ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIPS
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SCOPE PROJECT ORGANIZATION
External Company

• Student planned, managed and executed projects.
• Dedicated faculty member oversight.
• Standing technical expert advisor group.
• Dedicated company liaison/contact.
• External assessment at SCOPE Expo

Company Liaison Officer
Student Budget Coordinator
SCOPE Program Office
Student Project Coordinator
Faculty Advisor
Angel Faculty Advisor
Student SafetyEthics Coordinator
Technical Lead
Student Teammate
Technical Lead
External SCOPE Advisory Board
Expert Technical Advisor Group
Student Teammate
Student Teammate
SCOPE Team
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SCOPE PROGRAM SPONSORS
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A FEW OF THESE HAVE HAPPENED . . .
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AND A FEW OF THESE . . .
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AND MAYBE A LITTLE BIT OF . . .
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SOME ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

• Project orientation motivated by a do then
  learn model rather than a learn then do model
• Builds intense student engagement
• Increases motivation and builds autonomy
• Negative Can create the attitude of the only
  things worth learning are those things that can
  be done.
• Leads many to devalue and avoid theoretical
  dimensions

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SOME ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

• Trade-off between extensive early engineering
  experiences and depth at the advanced level
• Qualitative design versus quantitative design
  What is the appropriate balance?
• SCOPE program was revealing! Project management!
• Improving students ability to work well in
  unstructured work environments.

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SOME ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

• Intense early project focus conditions students
  to accept only project-based pedagogies
• Challenge to measure the effectiveness of our
  approaches complicated by our small size and
  selectivity. Moving beyond anecdote.
• Scalability?
• Curriculum review process (expiration date).
  Building a culture of continual improvement and
  innovation
• We ought more to apply to ourselves and our
  program the very lessons that we are striving to
  teach our students!

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OUR MOST VALUABLE LESSON
Do not underestimate what motivated students can
do!
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THANK YOU!