Invensys and Lehigh University Demonstrate World's First Adaptive Learning Technology at INVENSYS 2000 Conference

Business Wire, Oct 13, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

INVENSYS 2000 Conference

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 13, 2000

Invensys plc (London, England) and Lehigh University (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA) today demonstrated what they believe to be the world's first Web-enabled learning technology that fully adapts to a student's individual learning style.

"With conventional learning, the student must adapt to either the classroom instructor's individual teaching style or the pre-defined format of the distance learning program. For many students, this results in a less-than-optimal learning experience," said Raymond Bell, Dean of the College of Education at Lehigh University. "In contrast, by adapting to a student's individual style - visual, auditory, tactile, etc. - this new technology offers great promise for enhancing the learning process in both academic and corporate environments, potentially enabling students to absorb information with better comprehension in less time."

The new adaptive learning technology will be utilized to create face-to-face classroom programs and remote distance learning programs that are customized to each student's learning style to maximize effectiveness.

"In today's rapidly changing technological environment, ongoing development of human resources through effective learning is more important than ever before," added Dr. Bell. "This new adaptive technology will play an important role in the overall closed-loop learning model (patent pending) that Lehigh is developing in conjunction with Invensys. This model will enable corporations to go beyond simply teaching their employees what they need to know, to actually teaching them how to learn. The Lehigh/Invensys partnership is an excellent example of how academia and industry can collaborate effectively for everyone's benefit."

Trevor Cusworth, Vice President of Global Services at Invensys Process Automation, said, "Today's powerful automation and information technologies offer the potential to significantly improve the performance of our customers' plants. However, the efficient transfer of critical knowledge from vendor to customer remains a major roadblock to achieving productivity improvements. Through this partnership with Lehigh University, Invensys is positioned to provide a unique educational value add that will further enhance the effectiveness of the LifeTime(SM) Learning programs we develop for our customers as well as our own ongoing internal educational initiatives."

The adaptive learning technology utilizes a Web-enabled "Learning Style Inventory," which assesses a student's individual learning style and then adapts the specific course material to reflect this learning style as closely as possible. More than 80 different learning traits have been identified and are reflected in the Learning Style Inventory and the resulting course material created for each student.

Among America's top-ranked, most selective national universities, Lehigh University (www.lehigh.edu) has expanded the traditional model of discipline-driven curricula by creating an entrepreneurial environment that nurtures leaders. The university encourages collaboration among departments, its four colleges, student life and athletics programs to develop innovative, relevant learning experiences. Lehigh is a leader in online educational research and practice and ranks eighth among private research universities in the percentage of alumni in executive positions.

Invensys plc (www.invensys.com) is a global leader in the Automation and Controls industry. With its head office in London, England it operates in all regions of the world through four focused divisions - Software Systems, Automation Systems, Power Systems and Control Systems. With over 90,000 employees, the company's products and services range from advanced control systems and networks for automating industrial plants and controlling the environments of buildings, to electronic devices and controls found in residential buildings and light commercial applications, plus complete power systems for the telecommunications and information technology industries. The Invensys Process Automation group (Foxboro, Triconex, SimSci, ESSCOR, Walsh Automation) is part of the Invensys Software Systems division.