Certificate Overview

Our Graduate Certificate in Engineering Education is popular with students from across the College of Engineering. Requiring 12 credits, the certificate is complementary to graduate study in a traditional engineering discipline and serves to brand the recipient as someone who has made the decision to learn more about education of engineering students. The certificate is also complementary to the Future Professoriate Graduate Certificate offered by the Graduate School in the sense that, with electives selected in view of Graduate School policy, students can earn both certificates at the same time.  Specifically, no more than 50% of the credits for a particular graduate certificate can be double-counted toward another graduate certificate, and credits for a particular course cannot be counted toward more than two certificates.

The Certificate program is designed for graduate students in engineering and related disciplines interested in engineering education who wish to learn aboutthe education of engineering students and development of engineering courses and programs.

Admission Requirements

Graduate students wishing to earn the graduate Certificate in Engineering Education must be currently enrolled (not provisional) masters or doctoral students in good standing in any Virginia Tech discipline or major. For admission to the Certificate program, applicants must also satisfy at least one of three requirements:

• Enrollment in a graduate program in the College of Engineering, or
• Bachelor’s degree in any field of engineering, or
• Bachelor’s degree in the physical or biological sciences or mathematics

Applicants who do not meet any of the three requirements may request special consideration from the ENGE Graduate Committee by submitting a brief statement detailing your interests, experiences, and/or connections to engineering which motivate you to pursue the certificate.

Course Requirements

To earn the Certificate, graduate students must complete a minimum of 12 graduate credits, all of which must be taken for a letter grade, with the exception of 1 credit seminar courses. 

Six (6) Credits of Required Core Courses:

ENGE 5304: Graduate Student Success in Multicultural Environments (1 credit) 

ENGE 5214: Issues in Engineering Education (2 credits)

ENGE 5514: Applied Design and Assessment of Educational Experiences in Engineering (3 credits)

Six (6) Credits of Elective Courses:

Any 3-credit course with an ENGE prefix will count toward this elective requirement.  

Students may also choose to use approved courses from the Graduate School or the School of Education to count towards this elective requirement.  Examples of non-ENGE courses include the following:

EDEP 5114: Learning and Cognition (3 credits)

EDEP 6444: Motivation and Cognition (3 credits)

EDEP 6644: College Teaching (3 credits)

EDHE 6424: Institutional Effectiveness & Outcome Assessment in Higher Education (3 credits)

EDIT 5164: Design for Learning (3 credits)

EDIT 5274: Foundations of Instructional Design and Theory (3 credits) 

EDRE 5404: Foundations of Educational Research & Evaluation (3 credits)

EDRE 5644: Questionnaire Design and Survey Research in Education

EDRE 6605-6606: Quantitative Research Methods in Education I & II (3 credits each)

EDRE 6504: Qualitative Methods in Educational Research I (3 credits)

GRAD 5104: Preparing the Future Professoriate (3 credits)

GRAD 5984: Critically Engaged Teaching with Advanced Technology (3 credits)

STS 6614: Advanced Topics in Technology Studies (Engineering only) (3 credits)

Students may request to the ENGE Graduate Committee that other courses be approved as electives.