An evaluation of the visiting engineer program in engineering design graphics at Texas A & M University

The purpose of the research was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Visiting Engineer Program at Texas A&M University. The program was established for the purpose of developing creativity, communication processes, and engineering problem-solving abilities in students of freshman graphics. In addition, students studied about the profession through selected readings, television tapes and consultation with professional engineers. The survey method was used to obtain opinions of students, former students, and visiting engineer participants. With the assistance of faculty and engineer juries, five-point rating scales were formulated for obtaining specific reactions about the program-content, organization, experiences and recommendations. A pilot study was conducted to test the validity of the proposed questionnaire instruments. The Friedman Two-Way analysis of Variance was applied to the mean scores obtained from the questionnaire items. It was concluded that the samples were not drawn from the same population and there was a difference (significant at the .001 level) in the mean ranks of each column. The students' phase of the study involved two questionnaire instruments, one after each visit by the engineers. Eight-hundred nineteen students responded to the first questionnaire, while 789 completed the second. Data were analyzed according to mean ratings and percentage responses; graphical methods were utilized for clarity and effectiveness of presentation.. ABSTRAC