Electronic Content Development for Engineering ... - IEEE Xplore

Session F2D

Electronic Content Development for Engineering Distance Learning Richard Campbell, Steven Eisenbarth, Carolyn Skurla School of Engineering and Computer Science, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7356 [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract - Global engineering teams must work across borders and cultures while applying best practices. To distribute these practices globally, distance learning and online electronic methods can be employed to provide engineering courses where none were traditionally available before. The technology can also be used to increase engineering enrollment by partnering with schools that cannot provide an accredited engineering program. Course availability can now reach minority, foreign, and non-traditional students, who might otherwise not have access to an engineering education. The School of Engineering & Computer Science of Baylor University, in conjunction with the Texas Engineering and Technical Consortium and partner colleges, has started deployment of the introductory engineering courses in a distance learning form. This paper describes the development of electronic content for the second semester course “Introduction to Engineering Analysis. This paper presents the selection of technologies and the methods by which the actual content was prepared. Beta testing and student feedback were employed to make modifications to the presentation methodology and content. The most significant lesson learned is that the student cannot be expected to work in isolation, but must be mentored on a regular basis. Other lessons learned and future application conclude the paper. Index Terms - Distance learning, minority student, online course, podcasting. GLOBAL ENGINEERING EDUCATION Exporting ideas and products around the world, contracting off-shore for manufacturing, out-sourcing technical support and intellectual talent calls for an increased sharing of engineering education. Best practices in one country must also be realized globally, and all engineers should be educated to the same high standards for the good of the profession as well as the public. As the quality of engineering education improves, so should the participation by an increasingly diverse student population with the concomitant sharing of new cultures and creative ideas. One way to facilitate such sharing of best practices while increasing engineering enrollment is by electronic distance learning. The advent of new portable technologies and the Internet now makes possible the sharing of engineering course content in ways not possible until recently. The technology

also makes it possible for smaller colleges that could not afford engineering programs to now offer such curricula. Outreach to non-traditional students, particularly minorities and non-technical households, can now be accomplished. Engineering education can be provided to community colleges and small private institutions and the online access can provide a source to interest high school students. DISTANCE LEARNING METHODS AND TECHNOLOGIES This paper discusses the technical aspects of how one such course was developed and how it was deployed to serve several of these goals. While distance learning methods are not new, deployment of an engineering course, especially those requiring laboratory exercises, poses special challenges. True self-contained online individual learning is not considered feasible for this type of material, so alternative methods must be employed to include laboratory type content. The intent is not to have a completely online four year engineering curriculum. Rather, the unique teaming with community colleges and universities to prepare a student to matriculate to a resident engineering program provides opportunities to non-traditional students, such as minority and first-generation students, in order to encourage increased engineering enrollment. Historically, a variety of methods have been attempted, with varying degrees of success, to deliver education at a distance. One early method involved the preparation of written material alone, with the instructor assuming that the course content could be conveyed adequately in this fashion [1]. This method was later modified with the incorporation of recorded audio to augment the textbooks and workbooks [1]. The next generation of this method included the use of 35-mm slide shows with recorded audio synchronized to the slide show [1]. Some universities offered distance learning by sending faculty members or hiring adjunct faculty to deliver the course material at remote sites [2]. Videotaped lectures with supplemental workbooks or handouts were a much appreciated replacement to slide shows and faculty travel [1-2]. All of these methods were labor-intensive and expensive to produce, distribute, and update [1]. New technologies are rapidly developing that allow for the delivery of multimedia course material in a computer-based (e.g., CD or DVD) or web-based (e.g., Blackboard, WebCT) format [1-2]. One example of lecture

1-4244-1084-3/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE October 10 – 13, 2007, Milwaukee, WI 37th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference F2D-18

Session F2D delivery in this format involves audio teamed with PowerPoint slides [3]. Baylor University, under a grant from the Texas Engineering and Technical Consortium (TETC) [4], has begun a program of outreach by converting the first year engineering two course sequence to electronic format suitable for distribution. Baylor has “3-2” partnerships with several universities which allow students to complete the first several years at a local school and then transfer to Baylor to complete the degree with full credit for previously completed work. With the advent of engineering content now available, the “32” student can complete the lower division requirement for an engineering curriculum including the introductory engineering courses and then transfer as a full-fledged upper division student to the Baylor campus to complete a specific engineering degree program. This program has been deployed to the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor (UMHB), and Baylor is currently negotiating with several other small colleges to include this program. The second course in the Baylor sequence is “Fundamentals of Engineering Analysis” and was selected as the first trial for electronic development. This course is primarily engineering math, a lecture and demonstration course with laboratories teaching computer tools and as such is easily exportable in electronic form. The computer tools (programmable calculator, Excel, Mathcad and Matlab) are standard engineering applications that are readily available to any school. They can be installed locally in their computer labs so they do not require any special hardware or experience and there may no additional licensing expense. The course content is fundamental mathematics so no special instructor or mentor experience is required except familiarity with these computer applications. Electronic Lecture Preparation Since many instructors now choose to use computer projectors and prepared visuals for lecturing, Microsoft PowerPoint® (PPT) was selected as the application to deliver the lecture material. PPT has the ability to animate text and graphics, and imbed audio and video files that can be cued to the lecture audio. Students are also becoming accustomed to seeing lecture presentations in this manner and are comfortable with this presentation method. The student merely inserts a CD or logs on to an online site to begin the lesson. When the lecture file is opened, the lecture audio begins when the student selects “Start”, and the animated text (formulae, pictures, etc.) appear in time with the audio. This emulates the effect a student would experience in a live classroom seeing the flow of the development of a concept. In other words, the student is not bombarded with a busy slide all at once which would be at best confusing and also intimidating. At the end of each slide, the student may pause for reflection and then key or click to go on to the next slide. The entire lecture would then continue in this manner until ending with exercise assignments for the student afterwards. The student then has the option of

now reading or re-reading the associated text material, replaying the lecture, or attempting the exercises. The student may also print a hard copy of the lecture slides to use as a basis for taking notes or to provide a ready reference of the instructor’s example. The start of this production coincided with the beginning of the semester in which this course was to be taught live. Therefore, each lecture was recorded as it was given live and later edited for irrelevant content. While this seemed to be a saving in time since the lecture had to be presented anyway, it turned out not be the most efficient process. Once the audio file was edited, it then needed to be played to get the timing markers for the graphics and equations. This became very time consuming, as the lecture had to be replayed in real time several times. Having the lecture already recorded also did not lend itself to convenient breaks in the slide content. Notes had to be taken during the lecture review, and this provided the basis for preparing the slides and the animation. Each lecture was prepared as a separate PPT file with multiple slides, and the lecture audio was edited into multiple files, one audio file for each slide. The audio file was then inserted in the slide as an “object” and set to play upon selection of that slide. The animation timing was added to each slide element, such that when the audio spoke of a particular equation (for example), that equation then appeared on the screen. If the lecture demonstrated the use of the calculator to solve a certain problem, then a screen shot of a calculator graphic appeared at the same time. Similar animation was used for text and pictures which reinforced the audio portion. Most of the lectures were prepared in this manner and required approximately 25-30 labor hours per lecture to complete. With 30 lectures to complete, this effort became a sizeable task. After the course was largely completed, it became necessary to redo certain content. A different process was adopted which was discovered to be much more efficient and required less labor. The key element in this process was to prepare the slide content first. This preparation would be no different a task than an instructor would employ to prepare a live presentation. Each slide was laid out purposefully and stand-alone. Once the presentation content was complete, the instructor then used the hard copy and recorded the audio to the slide content. It was found convenient to use an empty classroom as the recording studio, and give the lecture in real time while recording the instructor’s voice. The instructor used the blackboard, walked around and in general used the same techniques as in an actual lecture. This gave a natural flow to the recording, and did not rush the presentation or introduce a monotonous quality that can occur in a static studio environment. When time came to edit the audio, using the slides as lecture notes also provided a natural break in the lecture which made editing the raw audio much easier.


Session F2D Audio Editing There are now available many small and portable electronic devices for recording lectures. The pocket digital voice recorder is ideal for this application. Two devices were used; the MyVoice DMR-918SU, and the Sanyo DMP-M2100. Both devices are battery powered and have an onboard microphone and permit the attachment of an external lavaliere microphone. Recording times generally exceed several hours so there is adequate space for the standard lecture. The MyVoice has a USB connection allowing recorded files to be transferred to a PC; however, the MyVoice uses a proprietary driver and file format which can make its use inconvenient. Proprietary software must be installed, but it does provide for audio file conversion to a non-proprietary WAV format which can then be edited. The advantage of the MyVoice is that it can record up to 18 hours of audio, and has a long battery life. The Sanyo recorder was more user friendly, but had a shorter battery life, and it was necessary to have fresh batteries before every lecture. However, the Sanyo recorded directly in MP3 format and is equipped with a USB plug so a separate cable is not required to interface with the PC to download the files. Also, separate software is not required with the Sanyo when using Windows XP®, because the unit is recognized as a read/write device and files can be transferred easily using the operating system functions, such as My Computer© or Windows Explorer©. The use of an external lavaliere microphone is preferred as this frees the hands of the instructor and ensures good voice quality. Once the raw audio file is copied, an audio editor is required to clean up the recording and break the raw file into individual files for each slide. The audio editor Audacity© was selected because it is easy to use and is available free on the Internet [5]. Audacity has the capability to import audio files of most formats (in this case WAV or MP3), and save files in any desired format. The MP3 file format was selected as the export format because it is a universally accepted format and MP3 is a compressed format which has a smaller file size and user-selectable bit rate. “Bit rate” refers to the amount of file compression, 128 kilobits per second (kbs) being the standard for Compact Disk (CD) quality audio files. However, voice audio does not require a high dynamic range and it was found that a bit rate as low as 32 kbs was adequate with no apparent degradation in voice quality. This results in greatly reduced file sizes which facilitates distribution and storage. Audacity is a visual waveform editor which makes it easy to parse the raw file and save selections as new files. Trimming and editing of noise is easily accomplished and the learning curve is short for the new user. Once the lecture PPT file was completed, it was saved as a PPS file type, also known as a slideshow file. This produced a universally playable file which could not be edited or changed. This is necessary to protect to originator’s intellectual property and to prevent students from making creative changes. This PPS file was then packaged in delivery form using a PPT feature called “Package for CD”. This tool takes the PPS lecture file and all associated files such as the

MP3 audio files, and assembles them into a folder along with a PPT Viewer application and the other necessary executable files. Once this folder is burned to a CD, the lecture can be distributed and played on any PC using the Windows ® operating system. The files are also backwards compatible to Windows 98®. The target PC does not have to have the PowerPoint application installed as the CD package is standalone. Now that lecture content is available electronically, it can be used in a number of supplemental ways. Baylor uses the Blackboard® [6] system for course support. All of the lecture packages were posted to Blackboard so that the course content was available online as well as by individual CD. This also makes the content available to provide a supplement to the real time course students. This availability provided a means for the student to make up a missed lecture, or to review material from the class. The electronic material also provides a different viewpoint from the live lecture that may benefit the student’s perspective. Students can also download and print the lecture slides to use as supplemental notes. Podcasting Blackboard now offers a podcasting feature using the RSS [7] protocol as well. Podcasting is the latest Internet technology to facilitate content distribution, both audio and video. One only needs a PC with speakers connected to the Internet to take advantage of this content. The podcasting protocol provides for a user to “subscribe” to a feed which is regularly updated by the user’s browser. One can then either listen or view the podcast at their PC, or copy the podcast to a portable player. In this application, lectures were posted at the beginning of the week as one complete audio file per lecture that is available for podcast subscription. The student may then get an audio copy of the complete lecture for review at their convenience. The podcast feature is available worldwide for any student to retain the lecture content on their PC or portable audio player. Podcasting on a portable player is not an ultimate delivery vehicle however. Graphic presentations are not possible on many players, and the screen size on video players is too small to present readable material. The best use is for the student to have a hard copy of the lecture slides while listening to the lecture. At present, the only advantage to this medium is the portability and must be considered only as a supplement until the technology improves. Laboratory Exercises Computer tools used by engineers in industry as well as academia are introduced in this course. Programming techniques with a programmable calculator are required. The basics of Excel, Mathcad and Matlab are introduced to motivate the student to apply these tools in their engineering course work. Because of their complexity, the use of these


Session F2D tools for engineering problem solving is considered too advanced for self-teaching by beginning students. This complexity also affects quality of delivery. The exercises for the various applications used for resident students can be provided electronically to the distance student such that they experience the same level of difficulty. However, the mentor must provide live and hands-on instruction in the use of these tools, and as such a true online experience is not maintained. This interactive requirement is not considered a detriment. It enhances the quality of the learning experience and the mentor-student interaction. Second, it ensures a consistent quality for all students receiving credit for this course. FIRST STUDENT TRIALS The first use of this electronic course was applied to a part time student who was also a Baylor employee working on an engineering degree. This student was older and more mature than the average freshman, so it was expected that this student would be capable of independent work and would be able to provide valuable feedback. This was a coincidental selection but fortuitous, as it was felt that this student would provide good feedback on errors and style in the first version. The student was to work on his own for the duration of a regular 16 week semester. With no prior experience, the student was left on his own to develop his study process with the requirement that he meet once a week with his mentor. The student developed a process of listening to the lecture several times then reviewing the text for reinforcement. At that point, he attempted the problem assignments and returned to the electronic lecture for assistance. It became immediately apparent that at least a weekly meeting with the mentor was an absolute requirement. Although this was a more experienced student, he had not yet developed the self-teaching skills that would be necessary to learn the material on his own. The weekly meeting allowed the mentor to correct wrong assumptions, ascertain that the student understood the key elements of the material, and review the student’s work assignments for correctness. The student was able to provide feedback about the lecture materials as well. In addition to simple typographical errors, the student had comments on the quality of the graphics and the clarity of the presentation. This allowed the instructor to improve the lecture material as the course progressed. With this mentoring process, this student was able to satisfactorily complete the course with above a 90% grade. The second trial was applied to a student during a summer session with a schedule compressed to five weeks. This proved more challenging for both the mentor and the student. This student was less mature and required multiple mentoring sessions during the week. The schedule required an examination to be given weekly. The computer labs were also compressed and had to be completed on a weekly basis. This student was coached in the process used in the first trial and used the electronic material in a similar manner to the first student. The student completed the course and achieved an

average grade. This student’s performance was not felt to be a good measure of the course content because of the highly compressed schedule. The third use of this material was during the regular semester offering in a class of six students. One section of lectures was designated for distance learning half-way into the course. The students were excused from attending class for two weeks, and were required to complete this section on their own time, but they were also required to meet individually with the instructor at least weekly for the needed mentoring. As expected, a few students initially reacted negatively to this approach because they feared they did not have the discipline to do the work on their own or didn’t like learning in that manner. One student expressed that she “was a visual interactive learner” and needed the classroom environment. However as the trial progressed, each student was able to use the material and complete the assignments correctly and on time. Even the students with the negative attitude ultimately found the approach a positive experience. At this writing, this course is currently deployed to UMHB as the first off-site application. UMHB is providing the mentoring and scheduling of the material, and the students have access to the Baylor Blackboard material and the laboratory assignments. At the completion of the semester, a survey of the students and the mentor will be conducted to improve the course content and deployment process. ASSESSMENT AND LESSONS LEARNED All students in the first three trials were given the comparable exams as the resident students. The final examination was comprehensive and covered all the lecture material (excluding laboratories). The students in the third trial only had a small portion of the course presented electronically and they all achieved above average on these exams. A quantitative analysis is not considered due the small sample size tested to date. However, the satisfactory completion of the exams and the common final exam is a positive indication that the electronic delivery provides the same level of comprehension as the resident course, when coupled with active mentoring. Preparation of the PPT slides and audio files is very time consuming and labor intensive. The developer needs an efficient process to produce a quality product. The most efficient method discovered for this method of presentation was to prepare the hard copy slides first. Once the complete lecture was organized and written, then the audio could be produced to match the slides. If the audio is recorded while using the slides for notes, the timing of the animation is much easier, and the page changes provide for a natural break in the audio. This allows the audio file for each slide to sound more natural. Even though the material is available to the student at any time, it is still necessary to have one on one contact with the student on a regular basis. Most beginning engineering students have not yet developed the discipline for selflearning. Regular mentoring also ensures that the student


Session F2D understands new material and is able to complete the assignments on a scheduled basis instead of waiting for an examination. Requiring periodic contact with a mentor keeps the student engaged and motivated as if they were attending class. The sponsoring institution may also desire to schedule all students at specific periods to complete the material, thus providing for peer to peer interaction as well. This delivery method is better employed in a semester long environment where the student is not rushed to complete all the lecture material and the laboratory exercises. Because the course content is now available in electronic form, a universal distribution is possible and many more applications present themselves. The material can be used as a supplement to live class room lectures. The material can also be used as a set of notes for any student and as a review by senior students. Students required to use this material in either self-paced or classroom venues are forced to begin learning to teach themselves. This experience will become a valuable skill in their engineering careers. Many leading companies in the engineering industry now use online training tools to complete ethics, personnel, and policy training requirements. As the availability of online content for advanced engineering skills becomes available, the career engineer will use this type of course material for further education. The ability to teach one’s self using the online approach, as well as via traditional methods, will always be a valuable skill for the professional engineer. FUTURE APPLICATIONS Development of distance learning curricula continues to grow at an unanticipated rate [8]. Because traditional, on-campus engineering curricula rely heavily on hands-on, experimental laboratory coursework in order to connect engineering theory to engineering practice, many in the engineering profession question whether distance learning, especially online learning, is appropriate for engineering disciplines [8]. Additional, potential limitations to the successful outcome of a distance learning course are the motivation and learning styles of the student [1]. Students without adequate time-management or independent study skills will not succeed in the distance learning format without interaction with faculty. Students may have questions and issues that have not been anticipated by the faculty preparing the course. These student concerns need a forum in order for them to be addressed. There will be issues with the quality of delivery of the hands-on laboratory course work deal. What is unique is the teaming with community colleges and 3-2 institutions so that the students have a qualified on-site mentor with whom they must interact and who will be proctoring the exams. The students may study the course material at their own pace, but they have weekly meetings with their mentor to ensure that they are staying on task and that their questions are being addressed

As Baylor develops confidence in the presentation of the first two courses in the sequence, expansion to other schools can proceed. Baylor will have proven content readily available and small private colleges will be able to offer an engineering program thus enhancing their student enrollment. This cooperative arrangement will also ensure that the students transferring to Baylor from such programs will be motivated and qualified. With additional features available in Blackboard, online testing can be added and made available to all participating programs thus ensuring quality across the deployment. Common laboratory and homework exercises can also be distributed using Blackboard or other online means for a common experience. Since this material is available on the Internet, cross-border and non-traditional students will be able to participate. Finally, the material could be used by high school teachers as a way to promote engineering interest and to give potential students a flavor for the engineering curriculum. Providing the first year course online will attract many new students to engineering who might otherwise not have been able to participate for economic or regional reasons. There will be a growing need for more engineering content as the development process matures. Eventually advanced level courses can be offered as well as continuing education for the professional engineer in industry. The engineering community can only benefit. REFERENCES [1]

Jackson AE, Jackson SH. Learning On-Line: A Virtual Education? Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition; June 16-19, 2002; Montréal, Quebec, Canada.

[2]

Easton R, Stratton J. Distance Learning: Facts, Failures, Foibles, and the Future. Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition; June 20-23, 2004; Salt Lake City, Utah.

[3]

Tyrer HW, Stevenson J, Epperson E, Noack T, Zayas-Castro JL. Comparing Traditional with Web-based Learning. Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition; June 16-19, 2002; Montréal, Quebec, Canada.

[4]

TETC is a consortium of companies, higher education and the State of Texas formed to increase the number of engineering and computer science graduates in Texas. http://tetc.engr.smu.edu/

[5]

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

[6]

Blackboard Inc. 1899 L Street NW, 11th Floor, Washington, DC 20036, http://www.blackboard.com

[7]

Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0) of the World Wide Web Consortium Extensible Markup Language (XML) Standard 1.0.

[8]

Ibrahim W, Morsi R. Online Engineering Education: A Comprehensive Review. Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition; June 12-15, 2005; Portland, Oregon.
