Technology Supported Learning Applied to an Innovative, Integrated Curriculum for First-Year Engineering Majors

In September of 1998, the College of Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth piloted an innovative, integrated, first-year curriculum. It dramatically changed 31 credits across two semesters. Preliminary assessment data was very encouraging after the first semester of operation and the college of engineering adopted a modified program for most freshman, engineering students in the Fall of 1999. This paper outlines teaching and learning pedagogy and technology strategies that brought the new curriculum efficiently into being and helped to assure its success. Many of these concepts were learned by studying work done in the NSF-sponsored Foundation Coalition as well as at other schools. Where possible, we have built on the best work of those who have already developed successful, innovative teaching methods and curricula. The new program at UMD includes • integrating the introductory sequences in physics, calculus, and engineering • teaching and using teamwork among ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2002
• Where: HICSS
• Authors: Paul J. Fortier, Emily Fowler, Raymond N. Laoulache, Nixon A. Pendergrass, Judith Sims-Knight, Richard L. Upchurch
• Keywords: Biometrics, HICSS 2002, Innovative Teaching Methods, Paper Outlines Teaching, Preliminary Assessment Data