Patricia R Backer

Implementation of a hybrid multimedia general education course in engineering

Technology and Civilization is an advanced general education course (Area V: Culture, Civilization & Global Understanding) in the College of Engineering at San José State University that is designed to introduce students to the realm of history and usage of technology in society from an international perspective and to increase their awareness of both the uncertainties as well as the promises of the utilization of technology as a creative human enterprise. We offer two different versions of this course: a fully online course and a hybrid in-class lecture/self-paced course. Both versions of the course use multimedia learning materials on CD. The goal of these multimedia modules is to have the students use technology as they explore its impact on our society over time. This paper will describe the structure and content of this course and discuss how the course is taught in both the online version and the hybrid version. As hundreds of students have taken this course over the past five years, we have significant experience in providing online learning to students. In addition, we will discuss the assessment plan for this course and how we conduct continuous assessment to improve the content and delivery of this course.