ON PEDAGOGICAL CONCERNS OF ENGINEERING COURSES IN DISTANCE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

The distance education and learning haveemerged as a popular method of instructional delivery inengineering and technology-related fields. In this article,we discuss pedagogical concerns in distance learningenvironments including some background and lessonslearned from our experience with online instructions inengineering and technology. We discuss students’performance using some accurate but crude data. Thearticle’s discussion encompasses faculty pedagogicalconcerns of security, interactivity, equity, hands-ondemonstration of concept, team-workability assessment, andethics, all related to online courses in engineering andtechnology. Some conclusions are also establishedintuitively through our informal discussions with thecolleagues having similar experiences. One majorconclusion is that in “open and honest” online learningenvironments such as those in most institutions of highereducation in the United States, the most important focusshould be on the “ethics” education of the students in mostlya minimal-proctored learning environment.Index Terms ⎯ distance learning; pedagogy; engineering;faculty; performance.