Johnson, P., Jack, H., “Impact Of The WWW on Engineering Education”, Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society, South Bend, IN, June, 1998.

 

The Impact of the WWW on Engineering Education

 

 

Paul Johnson and Hugh Jack

Padnos School of Engineering

Grand Valley State University

Grand Rapids, MI

 

 

OVERVIEW

 

STUDENT RESEARCH ON THE WEB

STUDENT CREATED WEB MATERIALS

FACULTY CREATED WEB MATERIALS

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

STUDENT RESEARCH ON THE WEB

 

• Students create pages of engineering resource materials

• Their results are available to others on the Internet

 

• Students can search for resources that were not accessible before

 

 

 

• University web sites often provide extensive resources and links appropriate to class work

 

 

• Commercial search engines provide resources for engineering searches of technical data

 

 

 

 

• The World Wide Web Virtual Library provides access to engineering information at sites throughout the world

 

 

• Much of the most complete engineering information requires a paid subscription for access

 

 

 

STUDENT CREATED WEB MATERIALS

 

• Students create their own home pages

• There is a high level of ownership

 

 

 

• They create content using HTML and proprietary packages

• When using application files the content remains “live”

 

 

 

 

 

FACULTY CREATED WEB MATERIALS

 

• Faculty add structured resources that help guide the students’ learning experience

• Class homepages provide easy access to course information and resources

• Resource lists can be provided for students to go beyond the material in their textbook and as starting points for class assignments

 

 

 

• The course content becomes more accessible

• We can add pictures and other items that are hard to add with traditional printed media

 

 

VIRTUAL LABORATORIES

 

• A laboratory can become a much more accessible resource

• The student can explore in ways not previously possible

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

• The Web provides new access to information

 

• But the access does not necessarily increase quality

 

• If we are aware of what is available and possible

- we can make the web useful to students