Clark State College will offer DACUM training to faculty and staff in developing new curriculum for the Laser Materials Processing program.
DACUM (an acronym for Developing a Curriculum) is an effective and relatively low-cost method of analyzing jobs and occupations. This method has been used worldwide for more than 40 years and in over 58 countries through the DACUM International Training Center at the Center on Education and Training for Employment at The Ohio State University. This unique process is widely used by many different types of organizations, including community colleges, companies, government agencies and professional organizations.
“We will train six Clark State faculty and staff from across the college to be able to conduct the DACUM process for developing new and redesigning program curricula,” said Dr. Adam Parrillo, dean of business and applies technologies at Clark State. “The process can also be used to address other needs such as developing or updating job descriptions. The process relies on industry experts who do the work to identify the tasks they perform so this information can be used to develop a competency-based program offering that meets the needs of local industry. The key element is inviting panelists from the industry that intimately understand the on-the-job requirements of the positions that will be filled with the curriculum.”
Parrillo said the training is a five -day intensive process and that the DACUM process has previously been used at Clark State to develop the Geospatial Technology program.
“Clearly, this gets industry partner input directly into the curriculum, but it also establishes a type of ownership for the program and an understanding that it is serving the industry directly,” he said.
The panelists for this learning experience are being recruited locally in the greater Springfield area for the development of Clark State’s new Laser Materials Processing (LMP) program and the extension of the Welding certificate into a full two-year associate degree.
“While these are separate programs, they do have overlap as laser welding is a portion of LMP and would serve as advance welding courses,” said Parrillo. “These are also within our Engineering Technologies stacking certificate/degree pathways which begin with our Manufacturing Foundations short term technical certificate and articulate into our Bachelor of Applied Science in Manufacturing Technologies Management.”
Parrillo said the long-term goal is to serve the broader project of advancing manufacturing in Ohio by introducing state of the art techniques and the related training to upskill and increase the manufacturing workforce.
“The LMP program is unique in this state, and Clark State is one of a few two-year institutions that will train in this specific area,” he said.
The DACUM training will begin February 6 at Clark State and will be taught by two experienced facilitators from The Ohio State University.
For more information about DACUM, visit: https://cete.osu.edu/2021/04/27/the-virtual-dacum-developing-a-curriculum-institute-meets-a-global-demand/