The Engineering Education (ENED) doctoral program is designed for students with a background in engineering and an interest in improving the education of engineers. Our vision of engineering education goes beyond curriculum design and pedagogy to include attracting and graduating diverse students with a well-rounded education and a desire to improve society and the environment. ENED graduates will be prepared to conduct research to study significant problems in engineering education, apply research-based instructional strategies in engineering courses, and understand policy implications for student success. The flexible and cross-disciplinary Engineering Education PhD program is designed to allow students to tailor their curriculum and research and to prepare them to achieve their goals in engineering education.
The PhD program is open to first-time graduate students as well as those who hold master’s degrees.
For more information, visit the Engineering Education PhD Program page.
Requirements
Required Courses and Credits
All Engineering Education PhD students must complete a minimum of 30 credit hours of coursework at the 5000 level or higher, plus 30 credit hours of dissertation credits. Some research advisors will require that their students complete more than 30 course credits, and the department recommends that specific course decisions should be agreed upon through individual faculty/student discussions. Students must receive a minimum grade of B- (2.7) in each class to count towards the degree. Students must also maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher to be in good standing with the graduate school.
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Required Courses 1 | ||
| Engineering or computer science technical courses | 9 | |
| Designated engineering education related courses. Approved courses include but are not limited to ENED and EDUC. 2 | 12 | |
| Additional relevant credit hours from engineering, education, or other fields (e.g., business, sociology, psychology) | 9 | |
| Total Credit Hours | 30 | |
| 1 | Up to 21 credit hours of graduate-level coursework may be transferred or applied to meet the 30-credit hour course requirement for the PhD. Courses transferred or applied must be relevant to the PhD degree, and their acceptance is at the discretion of the program faculty and the Graduate School. |
| 2 | See table below for list of approved graduate-level engineering cognate area and education courses. |
Engineering Cognate Area and Education Courses
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering Cognate Area | ||
| Graduate-level engineering courses at the 5000-level or higher; from departments and programs hosted in CEAS, including AREN, ASEN, BMEN, CHEN, CVEN, CSCI, ECEN, EEEN, EMEN, EVEN and MCEN. | 9 | |
| Education Courses | ||
| Graduate-level courses related to engineering education research and teaching at the 5000-level or higher; from EDEN, EDUC, INFO, PHYS, PSYC, SOCY, etc. For example: | 12 | |
| Curriculum for Multicultural Education | ||
| Teaching K-12 Mathematics: Geometry & Measurement | ||
| Teaching and Learning Computational Thinking | ||
| Education Policy and the Law | ||
| Gender Issues in Education | ||
| African American Education in the United States | ||
| Latinx Education Across the Americas | ||
| Higher Education in the United States | ||
| Psychological Foundations of Education | ||
| College Student Development and Counseling Theories | ||
| Issues and Methods in Cognitive Science | ||
| Leadership in Higher Education | ||
| Readings in Learning Sciences and Human Development | ||
| Quasi-Experimental Design in Causal Inference in Social Sciences | ||
| Theory and Practice of Educational and Psychological Measurement | ||
| Educational Evaluation | ||
| Policy Issues in Education | ||
| Seminar: Curriculum Theories | ||
| Ways of Knowing in Educational Research | ||
| An Introduction to Quantitative Methods in Educational Research and Applied Regression Analysis | ||
| Qualitative Research Methods in Education and Qualitative Methods II | ||
| Human Development in Cultural, Historical, and Sociopolitical Contexts | ||
| Critical Introduction to Learning Theory and Practice, Part 1 | ||
| Measurement in Survey Research | ||
| Foundations of Engineering Education 1 | ||
| Foundations of Engineering Education 2 | ||
| Teaching Design | ||
| Special Topics in Engineering Education | ||
| Graduate Seminar in Engineering Education | ||
ENED 7999 | ||
| Doctoral Dissertation | ||
| Information Visualization | ||
| Teaching and Learning Physics | ||
| Advanced Cognitive Psychology | ||
| Thinking Proseminar | ||
| Research Design | ||
| Statistics 1: Introduction to Social Statistics | ||
| Logics of Qualitative Inquiry | ||
| Stats 2: Statistic Analysis | ||
| Qualitative Methods | ||
| Data III--Advanced Data Analysis | ||
| Qualitative Analysis | ||
| Statistical Methods and Application I | ||
| Statistical Methods and Applications II | ||
| Additional Coursework | ||
| The remaining credit hours can be related to either the engineering cognate area or education courses as described above as befits the individual student, with the approval of their faculty advisor and dissertation committee. | 9 | |
| Total Credit Hours | 30 | |
Preliminary Examination
Satisfactory completion of a preliminary examination. Engineering Education PhD students are required to pass a preliminary examination that will include written and/or oral components, per the discretion of a group of 3 or more faculty affiliated with the ENED program in consultation with the student. This is typically completed within the first three semesters after matriculation into the program.
Comprehensive Examination
Satisfactory completion of a comprehensive examination to defend the PhD thesis proposal. The Comprehensive Examination is an important second evaluation step required to advance the student to candidacy for the PhD degree. It is typically completed within the first three years after matriculation to the program and more than one year prior to graduation. It consists of a written research proposal in addition to an oral exam with a selected committee of faculty advisors, both focusing on the proposed course of research.
PhD Dissertation
Satisfactory completion of a minimum of 30 semester hours of dissertation credits. Satisfactory completion and defense of a PhD dissertation under the supervision of a research advisor who is a CU Boulder faculty member affiliated with the ENED program. The dissertation must fulfill all Graduate School requirements. After the dissertation is completed, an oral final examination on the dissertation and related topics is conducted by the student’s doctoral committee.
Time Limit
All degree requirements for the Engineering Education PhD must be completed within six years of the date commencing coursework.