2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Beyond the Textbook: Insights from the ASCE mini-ExCEEd Teaching Workshop on Fostering Teaching Excellence Across Two- and Four-Year Institutions

Presented at FDD Technical Session 5: Curriculum, Courses, and Program Design

The teaching effectiveness of instructors significantly influences the learning experience of engineering students, especially in critical lower division "gatekeeper" courses such as Statics and Mechanics of Materials. These courses are characterized by high DFW (D grade, F grade, or withdrawal) rates, which can substantially delay student progress. Multiple factors can contribute to student difficulties in rigorous lower-division courses. These include the quality of students’ pre-college STEM classes, removing structural barriers to learning for working students, and limited formal pedagogical training for the instructors. This paper will address the instructors’ aspects of these challenges. To address the urgent need for instructor support, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported, two-day mini-ExCEEd Teaching Workshop was held in partnership with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). This condensed workshop was designed to provide essential teaching pedagogy skills to a diverse group of 32 faculty. Participants were from two-year institutions (41%) and four-year institutions (59%). Attendees included full-time faculty (59%) and adjunct faculty (41%). This paper details the structure and core content of the mini-ExCEEd workshop. It also analyzes participant feedback, revealing key insights into the pedagogical needs of adjunct faculty and educators from two-year institutions. The responses indicated that many instructors had not had previous access to teaching workshops. The instructors viewed the mini-ExCEEd experience as a transformative opportunity to re-evaluate their instructional design from a student-centric perspective. The findings strongly suggest that developing and offering more accessible, targeted teaching workshops is crucial for enhancing the quality of engineering education across all institutional types.

Authors

Dr. Sunai Kim California State Polytechnic University, Pomona [biography]

Sunai Kim is an Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering with a specialty in Structural Engineering and is a licensed structural engineer in the state of California.
Dr. Jeyoung Woo California State Polytechnic University, Pomona [biography]

Dr. Jeyoung Woo is an associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). He is a registered Professional Engineer (Civil - Construction) in Texas. He has worked in the industry for nine years and he has conducted several research projects about engineering education, construction labor productivity, and construction sustainability. He earned a Ph.D. and an M.S. in Civil Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) and a B.S. in Architectural Engineering from Hanyang University, ERICA. He is a member of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Project Management Institute (PMI).
Shant Aram Danielian California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
eugene leo draine mahmoud Mt. San Antonio Community College & Purdue University [biography]

eugene is a PhD student in Engineering Education at Purdue University, as well as a Professor of Engineering, Engineering Technology and Physics at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC). He received a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego; and a M.S. and Engineers’ Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.
Mr. Christopher Herwerth P.E. Glendale Community College
Mr. Dion Karean Coward [biography]

Dion K. Coward is the Manager of Educational Activities at the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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