Online Engineering Education: Learning Anywhere, Anytime

Journal of Engineering Education, Jan 2005 by Bourne, John, Harris, Dale, Mayadas, Frank

B. What is Different about Engineering Education?

Are there significant differences between engineering education and other disciplines, such as the liberal arts, that make engineering difficult to teach online? Engineering education is science and mathematics based-subjects that are traditionally the hardest to teach online because of the need for laboratories and equation manipulation. In the early years of online education, equations were hard to deploy because of limitations in technology. That problem has now been solved, to some degree, with current tools [e.g., 37, 85]. Nevertheless, the appeal of the physical blackboard (or whiteboard) is unlikely to disappear from engineering education anytime soon. With regard to laboratories, the problem is difficult because one must be able to provide hands-on experiences at a distance. Virtual hands-on laboratories can be added to online engineering education by providing laboratory resources at a distance that can be manipulated remotely. Expensive laboratory equipment maintained at one location, accessed by all, would have appeal to the online engineering teaching community [38]. Some institutions have addressed the laboratory problem through summer programs for hands-on access [39]. Students working at a distance and assembling in person for laboratory sessions may provide a good method for blending online learning with hands-on laboratories.

C. Building Graduates Who Are Lifelong Learners

Traditional, engineering curricula have been designed to provide what engineering students need to know, with the what referring to content. Learning to learn has been less emphasized, yet is part of the ABET engineering accreditation requirements [40]. Online education can assist in learning to learn since students learn the way they will learn the rest of their lives.

IV. ACCREDITATION: COMPARING ON-CAMPUS TO ONLINE

Online methods can augment the ABET engineering competencies [40], as summarized in Table 2. Some competencies are clearly augmented more by online methods than others. For example, student writing abilities should be enhanced since writing is a critical clement in communicating online; further, lifelong learning abilities should be enhanced since online education should be available throughout graduates' lifetimes.

A. Pedagogy to Improve Competencies

Lectures are frequently used in engineering education to transmit information to students. In an online learning environment, lectures can be captured and replayed anywhere, anytime, thus providing enhanced flexibility for learning. Libraries of stimulating presentations can be captured, cataloged, and reused again and again [41], thus contributing to, for example, competency (b) in Table 2. Experts can be easily brought into the online classroom, enabling learning experiences that are not as readily acquired in a traditional on-campus classroom (competencies b, c, d, h, j). These types of improvements arc applicable in several of the competencies listed in Table 2, especially those that prepare students for a lifetime of learning.