The Lee College of Engineering Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is the 2014 recipient of the Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence.
In presenting the honor, Provost Joan Lorden applauded departmental faculty for “designing and implementing activities that continue to improve performance while enhancing classroom understanding and developing a sense of professionalism in the student body.”
The Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching is granted annually to an academic department, office or program in recognition of the collective responsibility of faculty members for maintaining high-quality teaching and to acknowledge documented efforts that improve student learning and outcomes.
In the 2004-05 academic year, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty participated in Focus Area Improvement Team (FAIT) meetings where the developed strategies for improving learning outcomes in the major and improving student scores on the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE), a nationally normed examination. The goal of this initiative was to create an environment in which the fundamentals of civil engineering could be learned in a coherent way across sub-disciplines (environmental, geotechnical, structural, and transportation engineering).
The following examples highlight how civil and environmental engineering faculty and staff members have taken collective responsibility for and have produced high-quality teaching that has improved student learning and outcomes.
Departmental faculty members have collaborated to enhance student performance on the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) examination by integrating course content, course exams and the FE exam. The department facilitated virtual learning communities, created common and consistent CEE equation sheets for students, implemented FE review sessions, staged mock FE exams and instituted a formal faculty “signing ceremony” for students applying to the N.C. Board of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying to take the FE exam.
As a result of department’s dedication to improving learner outcomes, the pass rate for students taking the October 2013 FE exam more than doubled from the January 2004 rate, and UNC Charlotte outperformed the national average by more than 10 points in the most recent FE exam in October 2013.
The Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching is supported by funds from the UNC System Board of Governors. The department will receive a $5,000 award and a plaque commemorating its achievements in teaching.