Brian Hoyt

Project Catalyst: promoting systemic change in engineering education

Project Catalyst is an NSF-funded initiative to promote systemic change in engineering education by integrating instructional design techniques, transforming the classroom into a cooperative learning environment, and incorporating the use of information technology in the teaching/learning process. A conceptual framework is described to aid in shifting and supporting students and instructors activities in a transition from a traditional mode to a collaborative mode of instruction. In the first year of Project Catalyst, a core group of engineering faculty has begun implementing this focused shift by introducing a greater emphasis on team building, teamwork, cooperative learning, problem-based learning, and information technology. This paper discusses our enhanced instructional model and the supplementary skills modules that we will develop and use to implement this model. It concludes with the future work for the remaining two years of the NSF-funded project.

Incorporating "computer-graded" components into electronic lessons

Learning occurs at many levels. Students advance from basic knowledge of skills to use of those skills in analysis, synthesis design and evaluation. Faculty, however, have the task of grading student work in all of those areas. Demands on faculty time limit what can be done. Especially in courses early in the curriculum, an attempt to bring synthesis and design into a course means that time for grading design may come from time for grading basic skills. This dilemma could conceivably be resolved in either direction-put the time into grading work on basic skills or put the time into synthesis and design. However, the preferred direction of resolution is to put the time into synthesis and design if it is possible to take care of grading work in basic skills. This paper discusses an attempt to automate grading work on basic skills in electrical engineering. The grading program was written in an inexpensive authoring system and can be adapted to other disciplines.

The road less traveled: staff-driven re-org

In early spring 2002 the technology support staff at Bucknell University set out on a staff-driven reorganization and work redesign. In addition to describing the processes we used to begin, plan, develop and implement our reorganization, we will focus on the characteristics of our unique collaborative work environment and organizational values that enable us to undertake projects such as this.Many believe that reorganizations have to happen from the top down. Our reorganization took place from the bottom up and it has made all the difference. Ownership, trust, empowerment, collaboration, service, leadership at all levels of the organization, and creativity - these words sum up our process and our outcomes. It has been an amazing adventure!

Using courseware authoring to mentor faculty of the future

This paper discusses a novel method for recruiting faculty members-particularly female and minority faulty members-by introducing students to the duties and responsibilities of faculty members at an early stage of their undergraduate career. Students assisted faculty in preparation of electronic courseware in a ten-week long summer program as well as during the school year. Student participants were teamed with faculty mentors from their discipline. The courseware design was based on Kolb cycle principles for use in undergraduate courses. In addition to participating in their development teams, all students met weekly in a large group setting. In those meetings background material like Kolb cycle principles, were presented to the students, or they shared and critiqued their courseware design as well as discussing issues relating to life as a faculty member. Students were chosen for this project on the basis of an expressed interest in attending graduate school and in pursuing a career in academia. Nineteen students have participated in this program over a period of 4 years.

Changing majors at Bucknell: An update

The common first semester and a required interdisciplinary engineering course open to nonengineering students have since 1988, helped stablize engineering enrollment at Bucknell as the pool of available students remains significantly smaller. The course and a policy change that allows first-year students to enroll as engineering undecided have created an environment in which significant numbers of arts and sciences students transfer into engineering and students transferring out of engineering seem more confident about their abilities and plans.<<ETX>>