Evaluating The Effectiveness And Use Of Cyber Learning Environments In Engineering Education: A Qualitative Analysis

Cyberlearning is playing an increasingly important role in engineering education. According to a recent National Science Foundation (NSF) report entitled Fostering Learning in the Networked World, “cyberlearning has the potential to transform education throughout a lifetime, enabling customized interaction with diverse learning materials on any topic” (p. 5). Cyberinfrastructure forms the foundation of cyberlearning and allows students to comprehend complex engineering concepts by interacting with scientific data, visualizations, remote and virtual laboratories. New cyberlearning environments have the potential to extend learning from traditional classrooms and physical laboratories to include informal environments such as social networks and virtual spaces. Despite these significant advances, a larger theoretical framework of learning that includes cyberinfrastructure at its very core has not yet evolved. The purpose of this research is to provide a synthesis of the fundamental characteristics of cyberlearning environments that are being created to facilitate student learning within engineering disciplines. Furthermore, we examine in-depth how educators are defining cyberlearning within the context of learning theories in general, and engineering education in particular. Our methodology focuses on a qualitative analysis of articles in the engineering education literature drawn from The Journal of Engineering Education spanning the past 10 years. Four broad criteria guided the selection and analyses of the articles: (1) Content: What major types of content for cyberlearning environments are being created focused particularly on engineering education? For example, the NSF identifies various categories of content for cyberlearning environments such as interactive online courses, intelligent tutors, virtual and remote laboratories, and serious games. (2) Pedagogy: How are these cyberlearning environments being incorporated in the classroom to promote learning? For example, several educators have reported using the learning technology to supplement a traditional lecture or course. Others have replaced the traditional classroom altogether. (3) Audience: Who is the primary audience for the cyberlearning environments? For example, these environments can be created for both students and faculty to promote distance learning – allowing better access for participants from remote locations lacking high-cost instrumentation and facilities. (4) Outcomes: What learning outcomes are being measured? Is the cyberlearning environment enhancing these outcomes? For example, specific outcomes can include student content knowledge measured by exam performance or concept inventories and student perceptions measured by course evaluations. The results presented in this paper draw out major trends in cyberlearning within the context of engineering education over the past decade. Page 14592.2