Online Electrical Machinery Course Development for University-enrolled Students and Industry Representatives

The rapidly evolving technological world requires engineering skills being up-to-date and relevant. This applies to industry employed workers, as well as the students pursuing college degree. To keep up with the rapid developments in technology the industry representatives need to constantly update their knowledge base. On the other hand, the current economy impacts the college students in such a way that requires many undergraduates to work to secure the funds for their education which in turn requires more flexible class schedule. In order to accommodate the needs of both groups: the university enrolled students and industry representatives, the educational units must adequately adjust their curriculum. The Electrical Engineering Technology (EET) program in the School of Technology (SoT) at Michigan Technological University is constantly revamping the curriculum to meet the expectations of industry by supplying qualified technicians and technologists who have extensive hands-on experience. To further enhance and make the curriculum model more flexible, all programs across in the SoT are developing and offering on-line courses in multiple disciplines. In this article we emphasize the online Electrical Machinery (EM) course development and implementation for currently enrolled in Michigan Technological University students and industry representatives looking to improve their knowledge in the subject. The online EM course will be offered in Track A of summer 2012 and will consist of online learning modulus, online quizzes, exams, and intense laboratories. Due to the hands-on nature of educational strategy, the laboratory component is an integral part of any course offered in the SoT, and the on-line EM course is no exception. The enrolled students will participate in intense laboratory sessions scheduled during two weekends. Considering the seven weeks duration of the summer Track A, the laboratory sessions will be conducted after the third and six weeks consecutively. Prior each laboratory session, the participating students will be required to pass multiple quizzes specifically designed to test their knowledge in the subject matters being exercised in the laboratory activities. Due to current presence of blended learning in the academia and on-going research on its effectiveness, any input from academic units participating in on-line courses development and implementation will increase the knowledge database. The introduction of the on-line version of the EM course in the curriculum will allow us to assess the effectiveness of blended learning and compare with the existing results of traditional/in-person course offerings. In this articles, we discuss the details of the on-line course structure including the theoretical topics and experimental exercises of the course, the technology that has been used for the on-line materials development, and the implementation of the assessment tools to evaluate the student's progress.