2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Initiated through collaboration between the College of Engineering’s Civil and Environmental Engineering department and the University Libraries, a one-credit graduate-level data management course (CEE:5110) had been taught from 2020 to 2024 by a data librarian and an engineering librarian. The course was paused in 2025. This pause, along with a change from the data librarian who no longer had capacity to teach the course to a sciences librarian with extensive teaching experience, provided a good opportunity to restructure the course for its next, 2026, iteration.

Our main redesign aims were to align the course with best pedagogical practice and improve student learning and engagement. We approached this through three channels. First, we used a course map to adjust the order of the modules, which allowed us to review the entirety of the course, balancing readings, hands-on activities, and assignments to improve students’ learning experience. Secondly, we worked closely with the university’s Center for Teaching to refine the assignments according to the Transparent Assignment Design framework, and to review our course map. Thirdly, we updated the Canvas course site to comply with the national accessibility requirements as well as to enable inclusive learning. In addition, we plan to collect student feedback periodically. We share early observations on lessons learned and successes of the course changes, which should be applicable to any data or information literacy course.