MICROELECTRONIC SYSTEMS NEWS
FILENUMBER: 441
BEGIN_KEYWORDS
National Engineering Education Delivery System
END_KEYWORDS
DATE: february 1995
TITLE: National Engineering Education Delivery System
National Engineering Education Delivery System
(Contributed by Jim Harris of California
Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo)
NEEDS, the National Engineering Education Delivery System, is a project within the
Synthesis Coalition (described below)
exploring the infrastructure
requirements necessary to enhance the educational experience of undergraduate engineers
through the use of computers.
NEEDS consists of three major metaproject groups: (1) the NEEDS distributed
database and network group, (2) the NEEDS courseware development studio group,
and the (3) NEEDS delivery system/learning environments group. In addition, a
Technology Transfer organizational structure is being developed to facilitate the
transfer of NEEDS technologies between and among Coalition campuses and other
users of Coalition educational products.
The Synthesis Coalition is a union of eight diverse institutions - California
Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, Cornell University, Hampton
University, Iowa State University, Southern University, Stanford University,
Tuskegee University, and the University of California at Berkeley - funded by the
National Science Foundation to design, implement and assess new approaches to
undergraduate engineering education that emphasize synthesis and teamwork.
Together these institutions contribute a broad geographical diversity, a history of
collaboration in education, a balance of sizes, missions, and institutional types, and a
shared commitment to restructuring engineering education.
In the belief that most engineering programs are overburdened with course
requirements, excessive compartmentalization, and general lack of excitement and
motivation, the Synthesis Coalition seeks to restructure undergraduate engineering
education by developing, experimenting with and evaluating the effectiveness of a
variety of innovative curricula, delivery systems, settings and pedagogies. And it is
undertaking activities to improve the image of engineering as a field of study and as a
profession, to attract and retain students and professionals.
Using advanced supporting technologies provided by our industrial partners (IBM, DEC,
Apple, and Sun Microsystems, among others), tools and curricular
materials are being developed for alternate modes of instruction and access:
visualization and information
technologies, contextualization (relating to industrial practice, life-cycle design case
studies, historical development of technology, and social forces), variable pacing
(self-paced instruction with testing by modules), integration (relating material to other
classes, interdisciplinary case studies and design synthesis projects), and tutoring systems
to overcome deficiencies.
Also, frameworks are being developed for the next generation of textbooks based on an "open
architecture," which provides a skeleton to which successive instructors can add value in
the form of specialized "chapters," case studies, problems, demonstrations, and software.
Publishers such as John Wiley & Sons, Inc. are joining Synthesis to create the next
generation of electronic teaching tools.
Information on the items listed below may be obtained by accessing:
WWW
1. Synthesis Projects
2. Synthesis Documents
3. Project Assessment
4. NEEDS Courseware Database Access
5. NEEDS Courseware Database Cataloging
6. Synthesis Coalition Servers
7. Synthesis Coalition Directory
8. Other NSF Engineering Education Coalitions
dbouldin@utk.edu