About this course: Part of being an effective leader is learning how to play to your strengths and overcome characteristics that don't lend to good leadership practices. During the course, you will examine your own strengths and learn ways to use them in a leadership role. Learn to manage stress and solve problems creatively. Throughout the course, you will also build a tool kit of useful techniques that you can begin using right away in your engineering career. This course is designed for engineers who are interested in and have the desire to advance into leadership and management roles. You don't need any leadership experience to do well in this course. We ask you to reflect on your personal experiences pretty often,, so some work experience will help you in that aspect, but we hope that most of what you learn here will be applicable to many areas of your life.
Who is this class for: This course is geared toward practicing engineers who are early in their careers, especially those who are either in or approaching their first leadership role.
Created by: Rice University
Taught by: David Van Kleeck, Professor in the Practice of Engineering Leadership
Rice Center for Engineering Leadership
| Basic Info | Course 1 of 3 in the Leadership Development for Engineers Specialization |
| Level | Beginner |
| Commitment | 5 weeks of study, 3-5 hours/week |
| Language | English, Subtitles: Vietnamese |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Welcome
1 video, 6 readings
- Video: Meet The Professor
- Reading: Course Icon Legend
- Reading: Syllabus
- Reading: Discussion Forum Guidelines
- Reading: Required Materials
- Reading: Pre-Course Survey
- Discussion Prompt: Introduce Yourself
- Reading: Self Awareness Writing Assignment and Rubric
Introduction to Leadership
Outline a leadership competency framework, explain a methodology for assessing skill level and begin developing your leadership toolbox with an introduction to networking.
10 videos, 6 readings, 2 practice quizzes
- Video: Observation and Objectives
- Reading: Recommended Reading
- Video: RCEL Framework
- Video: Bloom's Taxonomy
- Practice Quiz: Blooms Quiz
- Reading: Completing the Personality Assessments
- Video: Leadership Journals
- Reading: Journaling Introduction
- Reading: Journaling Topic
- Discussion Prompt: Everyday Leadership
- Video: Personality Assessments
- Video: Goal Setting
- Reading: Goal Setting
- Practice Quiz: Goal Setting
- Video: Engineering Leadership
- Video: Tool box - Personal Networking
- Video: Dave's Journal - Model for Engineering Leadership
- Reading: Journaling Topic
- Video: Summary
Graded: Module 1 Quiz
WEEK 2
Engineering Profession
Discuss the challenges that engineers will face in the future and continue developing your toolbox with strategies for managing your time and how to prioritize.
9 videos, 4 readings, 1 practice quiz
- Video: Observation and Objectives
- Reading: Recommended Readings
- Reading: Engineer of 2020
- Video: Innovation Demonstration
- Video: Engineer of 2020
- Practice Quiz: Engineer of 2020
- Video: Engineer Interview
- Discussion Prompt: Adapting to the Pace of Change
- Video: President Kennedy's Engineering Challenge
- Reading: President Kennedy's Vision Speech
- Video: Tool Box: Time Management
- Video: Tool box: Prioritizing Time, Size Relative to Importance Levels
- Video: Dave's Journal - Reflections on the Pace of Change
- Reading: Journaling Topic
- Video: Summary
Graded: Module 2 Quiz
WEEK 3
Self Awareness
An introduction to self-assessment tools that allow you to identify strengths and weaknesses and how they could impact your leadership style. This week's tool for your leadership toolkit is developing your statement of life purpose.
11 videos, 5 readings, 2 practice quizzes
- Video: Observation and Objectives
- Reading: Recommended Readings
- Video: Hierarchy of Life Management
- Practice Quiz: Hierarchy of Life Skills Quiz
- Reading: Personality Assessments
- Video: Personality Assessments
- Video: Core Self Evaluation
- Video: Locus of Control
- Video: Dispositional Influences
- Video: Cognitive Styles
- Practice Quiz: Self Assessments
- Discussion Prompt: Managing Oneself
- Video: Managing Oneself Discussion
- Reading: Are You a Player or a Victim?
- Reading: Know Your Life Purpose
- Video: Tool box - Statement of Life Purpose
- Video: Dave's Journal - Making Assumptions
- Reading: Journaling Topic
- Video: Summary
Graded: Module 3 Quiz
WEEK 4
Stress Management
Develop strategies for limiting or leveraging stress to improve your leadership style. The tool of the week teaches you to practice effective techniques for controlling stress.
8 videos, 3 readings, 2 practice quizzes
- Video: Observation and Objectives
- Reading: Recommended Reading
- Video: Motivation to Lead
- Practice Quiz: Quiz: Motivation to Lead
- Video: Stress as a Forcefield
- Video: Defense Mechanisms and Responses
- Video: Strategies for Managing Stress
- Practice Quiz: Stress Management
- Video: Dave's Journal - Philmont Trek
- Reading: How to Make Stress Your Friend
- Discussion Prompt: How to Make Stress Your Friend
- Reading: Journaling Topic
- Video: Tool box - Using Stress Management
- Video: Summary
Graded: Module 4 Quiz
Graded: Self Awareness Peer Review Assignment
WEEK 5
Creative Problem Solving
Discuss the differences between analytical and creative problem solving. Develop techniques for encouraging creativity in solving problems while recognizing and overcoming conceptual blocks. We add mind mapping to your toolbox this week for a way to foster personal creativity.
10 videos, 4 readings, 2 practice quizzes
- Video: Observation and Objectives/Making Assumptions
- Reading: Recommended Reading
- Discussion Prompt: Filling in the Gaps
- Video: Analytical and Creative Problem Solving
- Practice Quiz: Analytical and Creative Problem Solving
- Video: Constancy Block In Detail
- Video: ... The Other Blocks
- Video: Overcoming Barriers to Creativity
- Practice Quiz: Conceptual Blocks
- Video: Conceptual Blocks
- Video: Assessing Your Creative Style
- Reading: Embrace the Shake
- Reading: Another Perspective
- Video: Dave's Journal - Experimental Observation
- Reading: Journaling Topic
- Video: Tool box - Mind Mapping
- Video: Summary
Graded: Module 5 Quiz
FAQs
How It Works
Coursework
Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.
Help from Your Peers
Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.
Certificates
Earn official recognition for your work, and share your success with friends, colleagues, and employers.
Creators
Rice University
Rice University is consistently ranked among the top 20 universities in the U.S. and the top 100 in the world. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Pricing
| Audit | Purchase Course | |
|---|---|---|
| Access to course materials | Available | Available |
| Access to graded materials | Not available | Available |
| Receive a final grade | Not available | Available |
| Earn a shareable Course Certificate | Not available | Available |
Ratings and Reviews
I really enjoyed the reading materials and videos.
Good course; very interesting. I would like to see the professor grade the course papers or at least review them instead of stric
Seems promising course. Lets check this
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The course content shows the meticulous efforts by the creators. It perfectly fits into the stipulated time of course completion, thus providing the participant with enough time to skim and scan (if not read through) through the materials and helps them take along the essence of it. The quizzes can be enhanced into more conceptual ones, rather than being theoretical based on the videos and summaries. The peer graded assignment is helpful in the way that it tests your actual understanding of the learning materials. In sum, it is a course worth the time and effort.