Greg Kearsley (gkearsley@sprynet.com)

Dept Engineering Professional Development, University of Wisconsin

ABSTRACT

The Masters in Engineering in Professional Practice (MEPP) program is a new degree program created by the School of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin to address the needs of practicing engineers for advanced technical skills. All courses in the program are delivered at a distance using an online learning environment involving WebCT. MEPP courses have been designed to conform to the IMS specification process. Considerations in developing a new program intended for distance learning as well as quality control measures are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

distance learning, online environments, computer conferencing

Most distance education courses and programs offered by traditional institutions are existing classes that are modified for distance delivery. Such courses or programs typically do not take full advantage of the media involved and are not optimally designed for distance learning. Furthermore, the faculty involved in the delivery of the courses usually have limited experience (and sometimes, little interest) with teaching at a distance, another factor that limits the effectiveness of such offerings.

However, as traditional institutions start to accept/embrace distance education as a major aspect of their activities, they are beginning to create courses and programs specifically designed for distance delivery. In this article, a new degree program called the Masters in Engineering Professional Practice (MEPP) is described as an example of this new generation of distance learning courses, delivered using online technologies (see http://epdwww.engr.wisc.edu/mepp)

It is important to understand that the MEPP program was created to meet new demands and challenges in the engineering profession, and that distance learning was an appropriate way to deliver the program to the intended audience. MEPP is designed for practicing engineers who find their technical and organizational skills lacking, especially in areas such as project management, engineering economics, statistics, quality control, data communications, and computer applications. However, as busy professionals, they would find it difficult to attend traditional classes, even if scheduled in the evenings or weekends (when most classes for adults are conducted). By offering the entire program via distance learning, it becomes feasible for such individuals. Taking MEPP courses does not disrupt their professional life (and vice-versa). Appendix A provides short sound clips from students in the initial MEPP class which illustrates these points.

Since all MEPP courses were created specifically for the program, they have been designed for distance learning and the online environment. The content is divided into modules; there are study guides, and assignments are done electronically. Faculty were selected to teach in the program who had an interest in teaching at a distance and had some previous experience doing so (although not necessarily in the online environment). Faculty and subject matter experts worked with instructional designers who had considerable experience with distance education in the development of the courses.

MEPP has several unique design characteristics tailored to the needs of its target audience including:

- learning that is integrated with work because of the applied nature of the course content and assignments

- inter-related courses and a balanced workload (10 hours/week/course)

- team-based learning in all courses

- high level of interaction and support from faculty/staff

The program consists of 10 courses constituting 21 credit hours taken over a two year period (2 per semester). There are also two summer sessions lasting one week each. The first summer session occurs at the beginning of the program and corresponds to the completion of the initial Network Skills course (described below). The second summer session occurs after four courses have been completed and corresponds to the completion of an Independent Research course. These two summer sessions fulfill the residency requirements for a graduate degree and provide participants an opportunity for face-to-face interaction.

Apart from the two summer sessions all student and faculty interaction takes place online (although audioconferencing is used in some of the courses). This means that participants (students, faculty, and support staff) must become comfortable with online learning and teaching in order for the program to be successful. Achieving this is a function of the online environment, good course materials and properly prepared faculty/staff.

The primary course environment for MEPP is the WebCT system (see http://www.webct.com) with an interface specifically developed for MEPP shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. WebCT interface for MEPP (syllabus for Network Skills course shown).

WebCT provides the following functions used in MEPP courses: email, discussion forums, file uploading/downloading, gradebook, and teleconferencing. Teleconferencing provides a link to the University of Wisconsin Instructional Communications Service which manages the Microsoft Netmeetings implementation used for audioconference sessions in MEPP courses. The WebCT interface also provides links to ancillary functions such as help information and the Virtual Terrace (information about UW). The most recent (master) copy of all course materials are also keep online, although on a separate server from student files for security reasons.

Course assignments typically involve postings in a discussion forum or uploaded files. Discussions among students and instructors can take place via email or the discussion forums. Because these are asynchronous forms of interaction, they allow students to do their course work and participate according to their own schedules. In addition, MEPP courses have audiographics or audioconference sessions which provide real-time opportunities for interaction.

One of the ongoing design issues for each course is the appropriate level of real-time events (i.e., audiographics or audiconference sessions). Real-time events allow for spontaneous interaction among students and instructors, but they involve scheduling considerations. For any group of students, a given day/time will always produce some schedule conflicts. Also, when students are distributed nationally and internationally, there are time zone complications. Some instructors prefer weekly real-time sessions whereas others are satisfied with less frequent events. To the extent that real-time events contribute to student and faculty satisfaction with the courses and program, they are an important element - even if they are not critical from a learning effectiveness perspective.

Participation in the MEPP program (for both students and faculty) requires a high level of computer literacy. This includes ability to use standard applications programs such as word processing, spreadsheets or databases as well as an understanding of telecommunications, file structures, email, and the internet/web,

While it is reasonable to expect the target audience for MEPP (practicing engineers and engineering faculty) to have such computer skills and knowledge, a six week course called "Network Skills" was designed that all students take at the beginning of the program. The course covers all the basic computer skills/knowledge needed in the programs and emphasizes efficient/effective use of computer resources. Participating in the course provides students with an opportunity to become familiar with the WebCT environment and the various forms of online interaction available. One module of this course also addresses time and learning management on the assumption that this may be the first exposure to distance learning for many of the participants. This module also deals with the integration of course work, job, and family responsibilities,

The Network Skills course does not cover the various applications programs (e.g., MS-Project, MatLab, XLispStat) that are used in different courses. Each course has to provide a way for students to learn these applications, either by making them an introductory module of the course or providing ancillary materials that accomplish this function. The amount of time devoted to learning software in MEPP is certainly significant, but this is one of the domains of technical competency that the program is designed to develop.

While the computer competency of students is formally addressed within MEPP, the competency of faculty is not. Ideally faculty would be required to also take the Network Skills course, but this is not feasible. However, an online instructor orientation course was created in WebCT and all faculty were asked to complete this before teaching their course. The instructor orientation course required faculty to use all the primary functions used in MEPP courses including Netmeeting. Since faculty usually participate in the pilot testing of their courses, there is plenty of opportunity for them to become familiar with the application programs and online course environment before the course actually begins. However, the computer skills of faculty is a potential weak element of MEPP (as well as just about every other online program offered).

The development of MEPP courses features two interesting aspects: creation of course "blueprints" which adhere to Instructional Management System (IMS) specifications, and an extensive pilot testing process. IMS is an international consortium dedicated to the sharing of online course materials under the auspices of EduCause (see http://www.imsproject.org). An IMS specification provides detailed information about an online course including the components identified in the specification. Appendix B provides the metadata section from the IMS specification for one of the MEPP courses (Network Skills). The remainder of the specification includes: course description, organization and logistics, instructional materials, lesson/module objectives, assignment details, syllabus, and study guide.

The IMS specification is developed sequentially as the course is developed, beginning with the metadata section, followed by the course description, then the organization and logistics section, and so on. By the time the syllabus and study guide sections are created, all the necessary information needed for those sections should be available. Of course, it is often necessary to go back and change information in earlier sections as the course definition unfolds, so the process is iterative rather than strictly linear. When the IMS specification is complete, so are the primary course documents.

Development of MEPP courses involves extensive pilot testing. Because MEPP is a completely new program in terms of both content and delivery format, it was essential to test out and debug the courses before actual implementation with the first cohort of students. Pilot testing consists of two stages: initial tryouts with project and internal university staff and field tests with representative students. The former are usually done at the module level and intended to detect gross problems; the latter involve the entire course and is focused on tuning/refinement of the content and delivery format.

Evaluation data in the pilot tests is collected via questionnaires and phone interviews. The data is mostly tied to the content and objectives of the courses, but we do ask students to comment on any aspect of the program they have problems with or would like to see changed. So far, participants in the pilot tests and initial courses have not raised any major concerns about the online environment or distance learning aspects of the program.

The general learning model underlying all MEPP courses is engagement theory (see http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm). Engagement theory has been developed specifically for online learning environments. It suggests that all learning activities must be meaningful and engage the learner. Course assignments should be based on real problems which students work on in groups. Engagement theory is a natural fit for engineering courses which tend to be practically oriented and focus on design projects. However, there is still a tendency to base assignments on artificial textbook problems; such exercises have to be turned into problems related to the work situations of the students and completed as group efforts. Use of online discussion forums are a good means for encouraging group interaction during assignments.

Engagement theory has been used in other online learning programs and seems to produce effective learning outcomes. Because students often tackle work-related problems in their assignments, skills and knowledge acquired in courses has immediate utility. Furthermore, because the problems are real, course work is more interesting -- which increases the chances that it will get done. Interaction with others in completing assignments makes distance learning much less of an isolated experience and the peer pressure of the group usually results in better work that solo efforts. Finally, engagement theory is appropriate for adult learners since it builds upon existing experience and knowledge.

One element of traditional classes that is not emphasized in engagement theory is testing and exams. To the extent that students have to complete a series of case studies, design projects and presentations, there is little need for such tests/exams. However, many faculty find it difficult to eliminate testing from their courses. Certainly, the grading of problem-based assignments is much more time-consuming than multiple-choice tests and the increased workload is a problem for some faculty. Indeed, engagement theory and the online learning environment is more demanding for faculty than traditional classes. This is something that MEPP faculty are forewarned about but still find surprising.

Ensuring quality in a distance learning program is of vital importance. While quality control should be a concern of any education or training effort, it is especially critical in distance learning since it represents an innovation and people are always wary of innovations. In the case of MEPP, we are also dealing with a new curriculum and form of delivery.

There are two major quality issues in MEPP --1) Are the courses providing the right skills/knowledge for the goals of the program, and 2) Is the online delivery system effective? The first issue depends upon the needs analysis work done in the initial creation of the program and the accuracy of course content in satisfying the instructional objectives derived from that needs analysis. Evaluation done during the pilot testing (and follow-up evaluations to be done once students complete the courses) tries to assess whether the appropriate skills and knowledge are being taught.

With respect to the effectiveness of the online delivery system, we can assess student and faculty satisfaction with the system and learning progress. We can also monitor how students and faculty use the system in terms of functionality and problems. However, it is difficult to determine if the current online environment is the best approach for this content and audience. We will tune the system (including trying out other online tools) so that it provides the best learning environment possible for MEPP.

The MEPP program is just being launched and it is therefore too early to report on outcomes. However, a number of issues can be anticipated. One question concerns the value/necessity of the summer residency sessions (as well as their duration and scheduling). While there is no doubt that face-to-face interaction is worthwhile, it demands considerable sacrifices on the part of participants in terms of vacation time and travel expenses. Evaluation data collected from the first summer residency indicates that students felt the time spent on campus (6 days) was very worthwhile, particularly in terms of getting to know each other and MEPP faculty/staff.

Computer literacy of the students and their access to suitable computing capabilities is an ongoing issue for the MEPP program. From the initial evaluation data, it appears that the Network Skills course is successful in ensuring that all students have at least a minimal level of competency with basic applications programs - and in many cases, has significantly increased the computer literacy of students. Use of the audiographics system (i.e., Netmeeting) has proved to be challenging for some students because of the system and network requirements - necessitating extra support from the project staff.

There are also questions about the particular online environment selected in terms of functionality. More sophisticated conferencing and groupware tools may be needed eventually to support teamwork. Faculty support and compensation is another potential issue since we know that distance teaching (when done well) is much more demanding than traditional classroom activities. Other issues include the maximum capacity of the program (how many students can be accommodated) and the relative effectiveness of different online teaching methods.

There are a whole set of issues associated with courseware sharing across institutions. Online courses facilitate such sharing since they are easy to examine and take (once the necessary passwords have been provided). MEPP courses have been created according to the IMS specifications to enable sharing. However, institutional policies and procedures must be established to facilitate this as well as the necessary administrative and support resources.

MEPP is representative of a new generation of distance learning initiatives that will most certainly produce new ideas about distance education as well as different views about professional training for engineers.

The MEPP project involves contributions by many individuals including: Tom Smith, Rose Richgels, Nancy Ciezki, John Stremikis, Dan Coldeway, Dave Edmonds, Dick Vacca, Wayne Pferdehirt, Karen Al-Ashkar, Nancy Rebholz, Lauranne Bailey, and the author.

Appendix A: MEPP Student Comments About Why They Chose the Program (Requires RealMedia Player)

Juan Gutierrez, CAP Gemini

Sue Bucheger, Mercury Marine

Oscar Lewis, Hewlett Parkard

Tim Webster, Todd Combusion