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A Consultancy model for a Freshmen Engineering course
A freshmen engineering course became a consultant company working pro-bono for a real non-profit client. The goals of the course were to increase confidence in students, instill a service mind-set and give them a perspective of working with on real projects. These are all factors in reducing attrition of new students as illustrated by previous endeavors. Together, they build a student’s sense of self-efficacy which is related to self-confidence. The theme of the whole course was as if the students were employees of a consultant firm. The Civil, Architectural and Environmental students surveyed an existing building, completed a needs assessment, and created designs. The lecture content was delivered just-in-time to meet the technical needs the students had in their project. This sort of course requires a significant investment of time by the faculty member to develop new clients each year, but the results on the students’ was significant. Pre and post-tests show dramatic increases how students rated related measures.