Distance Education Options For Engineering Education

The world of education is changing just as every other area of our world today is changing due to the increasingly technically driven, fast-paced world around us. People today are busier and more technologically proficient than they were twenty, fifteen, five or just one year ago, causing increasingly new demands for beginning, continuing and advance education from engineering and technology instructors and schools. In today’s cyber-based society, student demands for engineering and technology education is not only increasing, but evolving from the traditional faceto-face classroom instruction, to an up-to-date, justin-time, on-demand distance education style of instruction. More and more individuals are seeking alternatives to traditional classroom instruction in order to meet various professional and personal demands such as currency with technology and family. In order to keep pace with the changing educational demands of today’s society, the professional education community needs to respond with innovative, comprehensive, contentfocused distance learning alternatives for the courses we offer to the students in engineering and technology. Until recently, distance education was viewed as a viable option by a small percentage of engineering and technology instructors due to the strict guidelines that must be adhered to in order to meet accreditation and other regulatory requirements that are an intricate component of engineering and technology education. Currently however, distance education is being used successfully not only by trainers in industry, but by many professional educators in the engineering and technology fields. These educators are providing new opportunities for individuals to expand their knowledge in their field of interest, while providing programs and coursework that satisfies accreditation, certification, and other regulatory requirements for students and professionals in the fields of engineering and technology. This is a time of phenomenal opportunity for engineering and technology educators to take a leadership role concerning the implementation and usage of distance education in our fields. As educators, this venue provides us with the opportunity to develop courses and programs that will allow a variety of individuals enroll in engineering and technology education programs using a convenient, but comprehensive format that differs from the traditional classroom. This new and innovative educational format allows a person to receive the benefits of interacting with professional educators, but without the burden of tradition classroom education that usually causes one to tremendously re-arrange their lives and career to achieve their educational goals.