Development of an online master's degree program in manufacturing systems engineering

This paper reports on a newly developed online master's degree program in Manufacturing Systems Engineering at the University of Kentucky for which classes were launched in spring 2015. With increased emphasis on manufacturing in recent years, including the establishment of four national institutes for manufacturing innovation, a resurgence of demand for manufacturing engineers with the required knowledge is expected. Because this program will be entirely online, it will increase accessibility and provide an opportunity for career enhancement and advancement for practicing engineers who may not otherwise have access to a graduate degree in manufacturing engineering. This paper primarily focuses on online program development including the goals and objectives to be achieved, selection of a learning management system, faculty training in required teaching technology and online teaching techniques, as well as methods of assessment to be used. Being a manufacturing systems engineering degree, a number of courses in the program involve laboratory experiments or hands-on simulations. The challenges involved and approach used to transition these activities to the virtual environment for use in online courses will also be covered. While fully online courses were launched in spring 2015, faculty in the program taught courses in a blended format during the fall 2014 semester, with considerable portions of course content provided online and utilizing the Echo 360 technology for lecture recording. Results from surveys conducted during the fall 2014 semester and, how the findings are to be incorporated into future courses will be presented. In addition, challenges to successfully developing and launching an engineering graduate degree and the infrastructural support required are also discussed.