Professors’ Workshop

Coming July 2025

Registration will open early 2025

ACI World Headquarters
Farmington Hills, MI, USA

SPONSORED BY THE ACI FOUNDATION

The 2024 Professors’ Workshop was held on July 15 (virtual portion) and July 23 & 24 at ACI Headquarters in Farmington Hills, MI. Prominent, nationally known faculty and industry representatives developed concrete-related presentations and resources to assist professors in preparing a new course or fine-tuning their concrete-related courses. The workshop format is designed to involve the participants to the greatest extent possible and to demonstrate the application of inverted (or flipped) classroom practices.

The first stage of the workshop was composed of a series of asynchronous presentations that attendees worked through at their own pace on ACI University. These presentations were punctuated with quizzes and assignments to help effectively engage with the material; this is much the same approach as is commonly used in a flipped classroom. The presentations were designed to be both informational and preparatory. Attendees should be able to immediately implement the resources and teaching techniques into their classroom preparation as they worked through the asynchronous material. In addition, many of the assignments associated with the presentations were intended to prepare attendees for interactive face-to-face sessions during the in-person portion of the workshop.

The second phase was a synchronous online one-day meeting on July 15 which contained presentations and discussion sessions to help finalize preparation for the F2F meeting.

The third and final phase was a face-to-face event held at ACI Headquarters in Farmington Hills, MI on July 23 and 24. The participants were expected to arrive having completed the asynchronous activities and assessments. While there were a few lecture style presentations, much of the event was hands-on active learning sessions to experience these approaches from the student perspective along with guided breakout sessions to brainstorm and develop ideas for their own classroom. We held a panel discussion and social hour in which the participants had a chance to ask questions in an informal setting. The goal was to leave the workshop with well-formed ideas for immediate use in the classroom.

2024 SCHEDULE

VIRTUAL ASYNCHRONOUS

• Concrete Repair
• Pavements – What to Teach and How
• CRSI Capstone Course
• Association Resources for Teaching Concrete
• Teaching Concrete Design: Visualizing Systems and Behaviors
• Pedagogical Approaches to Teaching Cement and Concrete Materials Science
• Teaching Concrete Durability to Undergraduate Engineers
• Hardened Properties and Durability
• Calculation Worksheets in Concrete Analysis and Design - Introduction
• Excel and reinforced concrete design
• Mathcad and advanced reinforced concrete topics
• Excel and prestressed concrete design
• Flipping the classroom
• Course mapping fundamentals

VIRTUAL SYNCHRONOUS (July 15)

• 10:00 AM: Professors' Workshop Breakdown
• 10:30 AM: Introduction to Concrete
• 11:30 AM: Active Learning in the Virtual Classroom
• 12:45 PM: Lunch and Discussion
• 1:30: Flipping a Concrete Classroom (or any classroom)
• 2:00 PM: Developing Effective Course Goals and Learning Outcomes

IN-PERSON (ACI HQ) - DAY 1 (July 23)

• 8:00 AM: Fresh Concrete Properties, Placing and Finishing Concrete
• 9:00 AM: Models for Teaching Structural Concrete
• 10:15 AM: Best Practices and Lessons Learned for Teaching Concrete Materials and Reinforced Concrete
• 10:45 AM: Review of proposed course plans
• Noon: Lunch and Tour of ACI Headquarters
• 1:00 PM: Developing Effective Concrete Laboratory Modules
• 3:00 PM: Panel Discussion
• 4:00 PM: Reception with ACI Executive Committee (and follow-up to panel discussion)
• 5:30 PM: Group Dinner

IN-PERSON (ACI HQ) - DAY 2 (July 24)

• 8:00 AM: The Intersection of Impact and Engineering: Helping Students Understand That Their Knowledge is Important and Valuable
• 9:45 AM: Calculation Worksheets in Concrete Analysis and Design
• 11:30 AM: DEI/Women in the Built Environment
• Noon: Working lunch
• 1:00 PM: Participants presentations and closing discussion