The Comprehension Challenge

The need for increased attention to depth of comprehension in US engineering education is being recognized once again. In a dawning era of automated open courseware and mass commoditization of engineering education, the competitive edge will go to those who can instill depth of learning. The EXTROVERT cross-disciplinary learning system that has been developed at Georgia Tech enables the best of our students to achieve substantial new capabilities that are showing impressive results. Insisting on depth in courses is becoming more risky, due to a combination of student attitudes and lack of interest in logic and derivations, and administrative apathy and pressure that drive standards down.