Iowa State’s Engineering Career Services recently won three prestigious national awards for programming innovations.

“It is very nice to get these three awards in such a short time period,” said Larry Hanneman, director of Engineering Career Services.

One of the honors is the National Association of Colleges and Employers Chevron-Texaco Award, which recognizes groundbreaking program developments in the collegiate career services field.

Hanneman and the staff of Engineering Career Services developed a program that measures the ability-based outcomes of student development for the college’s accreditation purposes.

In 2000, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. officially changed its accreditation standards to measure 11 new ability-based outcomes, such as an engineering student’s ability to solve engineering problems.

“The [Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology] accrediting engineering program has done it the same way for 60 years and all of the sudden there was a big change,” Hanneman said.

“This caused a great deal of turmoil, but at the same time, a great deal of opportunity.”

Iowa State’s Engineering Career Services viewed the situation optimistically.

“A number of things came together at the same time,” Hanneman said. “All of the sudden this happened and we said, ‘That’s an opportunity.'”

Hanneman and his staff became interested in Development Dimensions International, Inc., a company that develops products to make businesses more effective. Development Dimensions International had been doing ability-based employee assessments, he said.

Hanneman said when career services saw the new engineering board’s accreditation standards and the technology Development Dimensions International had to address them, they approached Development Dimensions International about applying it to higher education.

The staff met with William Byham, the CEO of Development Dimensions International, to brainstorm possibilities. The outcome was a gift from the company to Iowa State of a “magnificent piece of software,” called Online Performance and Learning, or OPAL, Hanneman said.

OPAL allows students, supervisors and advisers to do assessments that reveal areas needing improvement. The program then provides learning tools that allow users to improve.

Engineering Career Services, with Development Dimensions International, adapted OPAL to include measurements developed from the new standards of Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.

Hanneman said the program was piloted with some engineering freshmen this fall and career services hopes to have all incoming engineering freshmen use it next year.

“We provide assessment data to develop tools right at the beginning of a student’s freshman year,” Hanneman said. “The students learn right in the first weeks of what is expected of a practicing engineer.”

Steve Mickelson, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, has used the OPAL program with his students for three years.

Mickelson has his classes do self-assessments ranking themselves on 14 competencies. He said they then spend time discussing the lowest-ranking items and the students are able to come up with their own solutions.

“It creates a good dialogue of what is important and what needs to be developed in the next four years,” he said.

Hanneman said faculty in the other Iowa State colleges are also reviewing the new program. He said he was “astounded” to see the College of Design include ability-based outcomes in a recruitment brochure.

“Obviously, [the program] is continuing to contribute to innovations in higher education,” Hanneman said.

Mickelson said the program has been “a real eye-opener” for faculty.

“It is very easy to get enthusiastic about this program, and once faculty see how it can be used, they will get enthusiastic about it,” he said.

Engineering Career Services was also honored this year with the John D. Shingleton Award from the Midwest Association of Colleges and Employers and the “Best Paper” award from the American Society for Engineering Education.