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Session 2202

REDESIGN OF AN INTRODUCTORY MECHANICS COURSE FOR ONLINE DELIVERY

Donald E. Wroblewski, Marny D. Lawton Boston University

Introduction

With the burgeoning growth of distributed or distance education, higher education is attempting to bring traditional courses online in record numbers. In the rush to accomplish this many institutions have lost sight of the fact that merely convert ing existing course material into an electronic format in the belief that that constitutes distributed education only accomplishes adoption of a technology without integrating change. The field of distance education has also grown rapidly incorporating substantial improvements in the use of media, pedagogies, and related technologies.

The advent of new accreditation criteria in EC 2000 provided the stimulus for engineering educators to reevaluate programs and curriculum, an exercise that also led many to reconsider teaching methods and learning styles. Coincident with this movement was the emergence of new technologies offering the potential to permanently alter the traditional classroom experience. The challenge has been to exploit these technologies in a way that enhances the learning experience without overly burdening faculty or compromising their role in the education process.

The primary objective of this project was to bring a college once active in distance education back into the environment of delivering courses remotely after a five-year hiatus from a college- wide distance education initiative. To accomplish this cost-effectively, rapidly and without a large staff or much equipment, new technologies and a systems model approach were adopted and tested in a pilot study discussed in this paper. Rather than taking traditional course material and merely converting it into a new format, the study attempted to redesign one core curriculum course, ENG Mechanics I, in the program and develop new methods for teaching and learning at a distance using a comprehensive systems model approach 1.

A secondary objective was to choose a course from the Boston University Late Accelerated Entry Program (LEAP), a program that prepares students with non-engineering degrees, from any geographic location, for entry into master degree programs in engineering. It was decided that eliminating constraints to the learning environment, such as proximity to campus, would make the program or courses more attractive to potential students outside the Boston area 2.

The goal of the pilot study was to redesign a specific engineering course through a challenging application of distance education technologies and distributed learning pedagogies, with the ultimate purpose of raising the entire LEAP program to a higher level. At a time when it takes considerably more time, expertise, and staff assistance to develop enhanced delivery of

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

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Lawton, M., & Wroblewski, D. (2002, June), Redesign Of An Introductory Mechanics Course For Online Delivery Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10657