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Session 3120

Framework for Cooperative Synchronous and Asynchronous Distributed Engineering Education

Joel R. Jackson, Monson H. Hayes III, Ashraf Saad, Thomas P. Barnwell

Abstract

The Georgia Tech Regional Engineering Program (GTREP) was originally created to provide the opportunity for students in southeastern Georgia to earn a Georgia Tech undergraduate engineering degree without leaving the region. Students complete two years of general education and engineering prerequisites at their home institutions before beginning the Georgia Tech curriculum as juniors. Georgia Tech courses are taught both by local faculty in southeast Georgia and remotely by faculty on the main campus. This system is further complicated by the fact that courses are delivered to three partner institutions as well as the GTREP facilities.

In order to effectively deliver course content in this situation, we have developed a combined synchronous and asynchronous system for content delivery. Asynchronous course content creation is based on the inFusion system we developed for rapid multimedia content generation. In order for faculty to become involved in the development of online or computer enhanced lecture materials, the production process must be easy and convenient. Faculty use a very simple interface to synchronize graphics, video, and audio into a coherent presentation viewable in any browser. A portable production system can consist of as little as a laptop and a USB camera. Instructors, even with little or no previous experience with inFusion, can create effective and engaging online lectures without the need for additional production personnel. The presentation format is flexible, allowing the presenter to change backgrounds, the elements included, and the layout. This flexibility allows an instructor to tailor his presentations to his teaching style, the learning style of his students, and the material. Any of the media windows can be made “hot,” with links to supplementary material, readings, or other lectures. These links can change as the presentation progresses, allowing the creation of context-sensitive links to additional material.

The inFusion system allows easy creation of course content modules, which has increased faculty involvement in the creation of a large library of lecture materials. This involvement has allowed us to begin a remote master’s degree program serving the general community and allowing GTREP to have a graduate component. We have also been able to generate a large library of tutorial and review content for computer enhanced courses. However, courses must also include a synchronous element, which in this case must be distributed to multiple locations from disparate faculty locations. In order to facilitate synchronous delivery, we have implemented an IP-based

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Jackson, J., & Saad, A., & Barnwell, T., & Hayes, M. (2002, June), Framework For Cooperative Synchronous And Asynchronous Distributed Engineering Education Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10860