Instructor’s Perspectives of Transforming a Traditional Engineering Economics Course into a Fully Online Delivery

Pil-Won On; Luis Occena

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Conference: 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: June 10, 2012
Start Date: June 10, 2012
End Date: June 13, 2012
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Methods, Cases, and Directions
Tagged Divisions: Engineering Management, Systems Engineering, Engineering Economy, and Industrial Engineering
Page Count: 8
Page Numbers: 25.787.1 - 25.787.8
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--21544
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/21544
Download Count: 381

Paper Authors

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Pil-Won On University of Missouri, Columbia

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Pil-Won On is am Instructional Designer/E-learning Specialist at the College of Engineering,
University of Missouri, Columbia. On holds an M.S. in instructional systems technology from Indiana University, Bloomington.

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Luis Occena University of Missouri

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Abstract

Instructor’s Perspectives of Transforming a Traditional Engineering Economics Course into a Fully Online Delivery Promoting quality learning is one of the growing interests in Engineering. It is evidentthat more engineering professors have presented in educational publications and conventions todemonstrate their efforts to make better educational values available to their students. Theinterests and efforts for quality learning in academia have led higher-education administratorsand professors to question how engineering is taught traditionally (Rugarcia et al., 2000). Adapting emerging technologies into educational practices has been suggested as one ofthe ways to promote quality learning. E-learning becomes inevitably popular while more andmore educational practitioners try to improve teaching and learning with technology. However,online education in engineering is not yet widespread throughout all engineering educationdisciplines (Bourne et al., 2005). In addition, it is rarely found that educational researchconducted in engineering deals with instructor’s perspectives of promoting quality learning withuse of technologies in teaching (Wang, 2009). One of the authors has been teaching Engineering Economics for more than a decadewith some degree of technology adaptation in the course delivery. The use of a coursemanagement system (CMS) such as Blackboard which is generally supported by an affiliatedhigher-education institution has been a major implementation of technology into teaching andlearning. A course site in CMS was mainly used for storing and disseminating course contentsuch as lecture notes and reading materials. A user’s performance tracking record wasoccasionally used to check on certain student’s current status, but employed in a basic level ofapplication. In order to expand the course offering to more prospective students, the instructor hastried to convert the course into a fully-online version to offer it as an e-learning option. Eventhough the instructor was experienced with Blackboard for years, it was challenging to create anonline course delivered fully online without appropriate instructional design and developmentsupport. The instructor has teamed up with an instructional designer to transform the course into afully-online delivery. What a difference proper guidance from an e-learning instructionaldesigner/specialist makes, from cascaded adaptive release of graded activity, to the use of earlywarning system and other tools, all of which have made course management a lot easier. In thispaper, the authors will examine the instructor’s experience of creating an online course andreflect on the instructor’s perspectives regarding proper instructional design and developmentsupport in need when an online course delivery is considered for development. The authors willdiscuss about the path of transformation from ‘before receiving instructional support’ to ‘afterworking with an instructional designer’. It is planned to survey students about their experience inthe newly developed online engineering economics course. We are currently in theimplementation stage and the data will be collected two times during the fall 2011 semester. Theanalysis on both instructor’s and students’ perspectives will be discussed as well.ReferencesRugarcia, A., Felder, R. M., Woods, D. R., & Stice, J. E. (2000). The Future of Engineering Education: I. A Vision for a New Century. Chem. Engr. Education, 34(1), 16-25.Wang, S. C. (2009). In K. Jusoff, S. S. Mahmoud, & R. Sivakumar (Eds.) University Instructor Perceptions of the Benefit of Technology Use in E-Learning. International Conference on Computer and Electrical Engineering (pp. 580-585). Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society.

Citation
Format

On, P., & Occena, L. (2012, June), Instructor’s Perspectives of Transforming a Traditional Engineering Economics Course into a Fully Online Delivery Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21544

TY - CPAPER
AB - Instructor’s Perspectives of Transforming a Traditional Engineering Economics Course into a Fully Online Delivery Promoting quality learning is one of the growing interests in Engineering. It is evidentthat more engineering professors have presented in educational publications and conventions todemonstrate their efforts to make better educational values available to their students. Theinterests and efforts for quality learning in academia have led higher-education administratorsand professors to question how engineering is taught traditionally (Rugarcia et al., 2000). Adapting emerging technologies into educational practices has been suggested as one ofthe ways to promote quality learning. E-learning becomes inevitably popular while more andmore educational practitioners try to improve teaching and learning with technology. However,online education in engineering is not yet widespread throughout all engineering educationdisciplines (Bourne et al., 2005). In addition, it is rarely found that educational researchconducted in engineering deals with instructor’s perspectives of promoting quality learning withuse of technologies in teaching (Wang, 2009). One of the authors has been teaching Engineering Economics for more than a decadewith some degree of technology adaptation in the course delivery. The use of a coursemanagement system (CMS) such as Blackboard which is generally supported by an affiliatedhigher-education institution has been a major implementation of technology into teaching andlearning. A course site in CMS was mainly used for storing and disseminating course contentsuch as lecture notes and reading materials. A user’s performance tracking record wasoccasionally used to check on certain student’s current status, but employed in a basic level ofapplication. In order to expand the course offering to more prospective students, the instructor hastried to convert the course into a fully-online version to offer it as an e-learning option. Eventhough the instructor was experienced with Blackboard for years, it was challenging to create anonline course delivered fully online without appropriate instructional design and developmentsupport. The instructor has teamed up with an instructional designer to transform the course into afully-online delivery. What a difference proper guidance from an e-learning instructionaldesigner/specialist makes, from cascaded adaptive release of graded activity, to the use of earlywarning system and other tools, all of which have made course management a lot easier. In thispaper, the authors will examine the instructor’s experience of creating an online course andreflect on the instructor’s perspectives regarding proper instructional design and developmentsupport in need when an online course delivery is considered for development. The authors willdiscuss about the path of transformation from ‘before receiving instructional support’ to ‘afterworking with an instructional designer’. It is planned to survey students about their experience inthe newly developed online engineering economics course. We are currently in theimplementation stage and the data will be collected two times during the fall 2011 semester. Theanalysis on both instructor’s and students’ perspectives will be discussed as well.ReferencesRugarcia, A., Felder, R. M., Woods, D. R., &amp; Stice, J. E. (2000). The Future of Engineering Education: I. A Vision for a New Century. Chem. Engr. Education, 34(1), 16-25.Wang, S. C. (2009). In K. Jusoff, S. S. Mahmoud, &amp; R. Sivakumar (Eds.) University Instructor Perceptions of the Benefit of Technology Use in E-Learning. International Conference on Computer and Electrical Engineering (pp. 580-585). Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society.
AU - Pil-Won On
AU - Luis Occena
CY - San Antonio, Texas
DA - 2012/06/10
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Instructor’s Perspectives of Transforming a Traditional Engineering Economics Course into a Fully Online Delivery
UR - https://peer.asee.org/21544
DO - 10.18260/1-2--21544
ER -