development of the electroscience curriculum involves designing, developing, and delivery to Focus: HOPE candidates. The curriculum should serve candidates ...
Development of Electroscience Curriculum for Greenfield Coalition Nizar Al-Holou, Ph.D. Associate Professor Electrical Engineering Dept., University of Detroit Mercy Detroit, MI 48219-0900
Abstract - This paper addresses
the challenges associated with electroscience curriculum development for Greenfield Coalition. Greenfield Coalition for New manufacturing Education is a National Science Foundationsupported partnership of six diverse educational institutions, five top manufacturing companies, the Society of manufacturing Engineers, and Focus: HOPE. Greenfield was chartered to develop and produce a new, innovative manufacturing technology and engineering curriculum. The development of the electroscience curriculum involves designing, developing, and delivery to Focus: HOPE candidates. The curriculum should serve candidates in three degree programs: Associate degree (AS), Bachelor of Engineering degree (BE), and Bachelor of Engineering Technology degree (BET) programs. This presents unique challenges that have been addressed throughout the project. The other challenge is integrating physics with the principles of electrical engineering in one curriculum. The last and most difficult challenge is to develop the curriculum so that computer-based instruction (CBI) is the main source of instruction for students. We have designed, developed, and delivered computer-based instructional (CBI) curriculum that we will demonstrate in the 1997 FIE conference.
Introduction American industry faces stiff competition in today’s world markets. As competition increases, manufacturers search for ways to produce more at a lower cost with higher quality. Few would disagree that the long-term key to improving productivity is education. However, there are difficulties associated with using the prevalent classroom system for continuing learning. Such difficulties include traveling distance between work place and university; interruption of work schedules; and difficulty presenting the latest information and technology. Educational research has documented that traditional classroom teaching is not very effective and new innovative teaching pedagogy is needed [1,2]. Therefore, government, industry and educational institutions have started searching for innovative ways to improve education. As a result, American industry has initiated cooperation with universities to build modular
educational programs that allow employees to expand their knowledge and thus increase the company’s competitive edge. Also, educational institutions have started their own initiatives to enhance student learning [3-9]. The National Science Foundation has funded few coalitions around the country to develop new teaching pedagogy, such as Greenfield, NEEDS, Gateway, ECSEL, Foundation, The Academy, SCCEME, SUCCEED, Synthesis [10]. The challenge is to develop and bring “multimedia”-enhanced (the computer-enabled combination of text, video, and sound) courseware into the classroom. The “Principles of Electrical Engineering and Physics (Electroscience)” knowledge area is designed to cover the areas of Electrophysics and Principles of Electrical Engineering and to provide candidates with enough background to take subsequent courses, such as Electrical Machines, Sensor and Instrumentation, and Control systems. Also, it should provide knowledge relevant to the manufacturing environment at Focus: HOPE, or any other up-to-date manufacturing environment. In addition, this courseware will achieve the depth required to make it useful to support the educational efforts in this field at the participating universities and the academic community. The curriculum should serve candidates in three degree programs (AS, BE and BET). This presents unique challenges that have been addressed throughout the project (planning, developing, and delivery). The curriculum provides five credit hours. Three credit hours are common for all degrees (AS, BE and BET), one credit hour for engineering and engineering technology (BE and BET) students, and one credit for engineering (BE) students only. The other challenge is integrating physics with the principles of electrical engineering into one curriculum. Such integration has not received enough attention. To our knowledge, two institutions have tried the integration of physics and engineering courses [11]. Also, the curriculum should have real-world case studies, particularly from Focus: HOPE’s Center for Advanced Technology. The last and most difficult challenge is to develop the curriculum so that, computer-based instruction (CBI) is the main source of instruction for candidates. There have been few CBI developments in this area, most of which have been intended
as supplements or tutorials [12]. The objective of this project is to develop the CBI curriculum as the main source of instruction for candidates including real-world case studies.
Greenfield Coalition Greenfield is a Coalition for New Manufacturing Education, a National Science Foundation-supported partnership of six diverse educational institutions, five top manufacturing companies, the Society of manufacturing Engineers, and Focus: HOPE (as shown in table 1). Greenfield Coalition has been funded by NSF since 1992 (Grant #EEC-9221542). Planned NSF support for Greenfield is $15 M over five years. Greenfield is a new model for manufacturing education based on the combination of skill and deep engineering knowledge resulting from integration of engineering practice and innovative pedagogy. The new model for advanced manufacturing education is being demonstrated at Focus:HOPE’s Center for Advanced Technologies(CAT). Focus: HOPE is a civil and human rights organization, founded in 1968 to unite a multicultural community efforts to overcome injustice and build racial harmony in the Detroit metropolitan area. Focus: HOPE provides many programs for minority such as technology training programs, education and corporate partnerships, and food programs. Focus:HOPE’s Center for Advanced Technology (CAT), a futuristic, 220,000 square foot facility has been reconstructed from a former Ford factory to create a radically different manufacturing and learning enterprise. The CAT is equipped with $55 M in leading edge manufacturing and information system equipment. The “candidates” (students) in the CAT are employed within manufacturing contracts from the automotive, aerospace, and durable goods industries.
Greenfield Vision and Mission The coalition’s vision is to “create a world-class manufacturing engineer and engineering technologist highly sought by industry.” The mission of Greenfield is to “educate a proactive manufacturing engineer and engineering technologist who seeks, integrates, and applies deep knowledge to create and implement innovative product realization processes that provide global opportunities and competitive advantage for the manufacturing enterprise.” Preparing these “renaissance” technologists and engineers requires next-generation courseware designed to integrate training issues with educational foundations. The new curriculum uses an educational “pull” instead of “push” system — that is, it is learner-centered, competency-driven,
and experientially-based. This is being accomplished by combining theory and practice in an interdisciplinary, teamoriented environment anchored to a “real-world” production floor. Intra-university coalition development teams are designing and producing these learning programs using innovative educational approaches and advanced information delivery techniques. The outcome: a new “transportable” curriculum specifically designed to facilitate industry/academic partnering, while instilling a balance of knowledge, skills, values, and behavior. This “vision” infers a number of important competencies in areas such as: • leadership and teamwork • the ability to seek, understand and apply knowledge from a variety of traditional disciplines • the deep phenomenological understanding of products, and practice • a broad understanding of the entire enterprise, including the impact of technological decisions on profits, society and the environment This curriculum is first being executed in an operational manufacturing enterprise (the “green field” of Focus:HOPE’s Center for Advanced Technologies (CAT)), and then transferred with minimal alteration to legacy university programs. As such, Greenfield is a new model for manufacturing education that focuses on the changing patterns in industry demands, previously underutilized sources of engineering/technology graduates, and innovative pedagogy.
Key Concepts A fundamental premise in the Greenfield concept is using a curriculum that employs a modular approach to subject matter, interwoven competencies, “best in class” knowledge sources and delivery systems, and flexible learning pathways. This approach allows the Greenfield institutions to have the flexibility necessary for both to improve the quality of undergraduate education and to increase the successful participation of minorities and women. Instead of a “course,” students in Greenfield are using a set of modules that, when combined, represent the same body of a knowledge present in one or more traditional courses. A Module may be comprised of a sequence of lectures and meetings, a group of laboratory exercises, a practice-based knowledge acquisition experience, an in-plant problem solving activity, one or more computer-based instructional lessons, or various combinations of all of these elements.
University of Detroit Mercy Central State University Lawrence Technological University Lehigh University University of Michigan Wayne State University
Focus:HOPE; Center for Advanced Technology Chrysler Corporation Cincinnati Milacron Detroit Diesel Corporation Ford Motor Company General Motors Corporation Table 1. Greenfield Coalition
A modular structure allows experience-driven inquiry exercises to be used for learning particular portions of courses through well structured assignments related to real production issues. The more modular approach allows the coalition to offer some modules in a knowledge area that are exclusively directed at engineering technology students, others that are exclusively directed at engineering students, and still others which are common to the two programs. The six university partners of the coalition will, in effect, become a virtual university, each developing and delivering modules for the candidates at the CAT. As the modules are aggregated into courses, and then into programs, three university partners will confer the undergraduate manufacturing degrees: Lawrence Technological University outside of Detroit (an Associate’s Degree), Wayne State University in Detroit (a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering Technology), and the University of Detroit Mercy (a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering). All major decisions and strategic directions are being defined by the Greenfield team including Focus: HOPE, all university and industrial partners, and professional organizations. Together with industry, Greenfield is defining the performance requirements of the “product,” namely, the graduates. This statement of requirements is manifest in the core competencies driving the definition of the curriculum content and processes. Also, industry is participating in the instructional program as volunteer mentors and instructional support as the candidates learn and apply their knowledge to attain these competencies. The Coalition’s three-part strategy for broad, synergistic introductions of innovative and a comprehensive curriculum involves: (1) innovation at the CAT as a Greenfield program; (2) validation in the university partners’ legacy programs; and (3) implementation enables for engineering schools nationally. The coalition has adopted a strategy of continuous improvement that is driven by a formative assessment program that monitors student learning, the educational paradigm, and the impact on the nation. By following this road map of strategic positions, Greenfield is creating, implementing, assessing, and
disseminating an entirely new structure of engineering education — one that graduates a proactive engineer who is able to seek and apply deep knowledge to grasp technological advantages for his or her manufacturing enterprise.
Innovative Curriculum In order to design an integrated manufacturing engineering curriculum, Greenfield re-examined the engineering fundamentals courses so as to ensure linkages to manufacturing practice, while preserving academic rigor. We proposed integrating the fundamental content of conventional physics with their applications in relevant engineering areas. In this way, concepts would be introduced such that the knowledge of them is both meaningful and addresses the specific needs of both the engineering and engineering technology curriculum. The electroscience area includes the complementary concepts of electricity and magnetism from physics and the relevant electrical engineering concepts as used in manufacturing technology and engineering practice. Thus, circuits that are found on the shop floor will be used as primary examples, moving on to more abstract or more extracted examples, if needed, as the lessons progress. The physical, intuitive sense that the candidates already possess from their job experiences will be capitalized upon to first leverage their abilities early on and then demonstrate the principles behind their intuitive experiences as a complementary activity of closure. Secondly, it is important to capitalize on the mechanical tacit knowledge that they immerse themselves in daily to motivate the study of mechanics first and then use that knowledge as a base for subsequent development in areas that may be slightly farther away from their current knowledge base. The aim is to follow a basic principle of effective learning that always connects the novel with the known. The integration of electroscience curriculum is also pursued since the assimilation of the various knowledge constructs into a common schema allows for more effective knowledge organization and ultimately for a deeper
understanding and higher level of performance in knowledge applications. This recommended integration takes various forms and includes the following: • the use of a common glossary and nomenclature to avoid conflicts • the use of a common interface to minimize redundancy and reduce ambiguity • the use of a common sequencing of activities that should not constrain the possibility of adding new activities where considered appropriate and effective. The above represents necessary measures to ensure an integrated engineering science fundamentals curriculum for manufacturing technology and engineering; that by no means should be construed as limiting creativity or innovation. Quite the contrary, they are the minimum set of requirements that may need to be augmented by the joint set of principal investigators (PI) as the project progresses. The PIs both individually and collectively are encouraged to be creative in addressing the specific needs of the candidates as well as in planning for the eventual adoption of this model by schools nationwide. Just as Greenfield results will be useful to them, our curriculum developers will continue to examine and learn from the experiences of other integrated curricula, such as those at Rose-Hulman and Morgan State.
CURRICULUM DESCRIPTION Electric Circuit is not an easy subject for Engineering students, especially non EE majors, to understand. Computer-based instructions will be used to make it more interesting, easy to understand, and intuitive. Authorware 3.0 is being used to develop computer-based instructions. Authorware is an object-oriented authoring tool that supports the incorporation of text, graphics, animation, audio, and video. It is an Iconic/Flow Control paradigm that is a powerful authoring platform for rapid prototyping. The electroscience curriculum consists of eight CBI modules. Two modules cover the electrophysics background needed (Modules 1 and 4). These modules, which are similar to our Physics II course, represent two credit hours. However, the Physics II course is three credit hours. We have saved one credit hour by integrating Physics and Principles of Electrical Engineering courses and eliminating the overlap. The remaining six modules represent the Principles of Electrical Engineering course, which is three credit hours. In addition, this courseware will achieve the depth required to make it useful to support the educational efforts in this field at the participating universities. The following describes the CBI modules under development for the electroscience curriculum. Module 1- Electrostatics: The objective is to introduce the physics background needed to understand electric circuit
concepts and their applications. The electrostatics background introduced which includes electric charges, Coulomb’s Law, potential difference, work, and energy. Real-world case studies will be introduced using text, graphics, audio, and animation. After completing this Module, the candidate will gain a good understanding of the basics of physics that will help candidates understand electricity. They will be able to relate the forces experienced by different electric charges. The assessment will include on-line testing, written test, and a case-study report. Module2- Introduction to Electric Circuits: This module starts with a flashlight model that uses animation to help students visualize and understand intuitively the relationship between current, voltage, resistance, and power. Having done this, a study of basic circuit principles (such as Ohm’s Law, Kirchoff’s Laws, and power relationships for a twoterminal element) will be undertaken to help students appreciate the theoretical relationship between these circuit variables. Other topics will be covered, such as simplification of series, parallel and series-parallel circuits. The prerequisite for this Module is equations with parameters, quadratic equations, graphs, and Module1. The candidates will be able to relate the terminal voltage, current, energy, and power physically and mathematically. They will simplify electric series circuit, parallel circuits, and series-parallel circuits. They will be able to use Ohm's Law and Kirchoff's Laws to solve simple DC circuits. The assessment will include on-line testing, written test, and a case-study report. Module 3- DC Circuit Analysis: The objective of this module is to introduce the circuit analysis techniques through examples and case studies with animation to enable the understanding of more complicated circuits and systems. Circuit analysis techniques (such as source transformation, nodal voltage, mesh current methods, current and voltage division rules, and the superposition principle) are discussed in detail. Examples and case studies are used to illustrated these techniques. Thevenin and Norton equivalent circuits are introduced and their importance discussed in maximum power transfer and load matching cases. The principle of load matching for maximum power transfer is emphasized and their practical implications demonstrated. A case-study based on maximum power transfer conditions has been developed. The assessment will include on-line testing, written test, and a case-study report. Module 4- Inductance, Capacitance and Electromagnetism: This module includes magnetic force, sources of magnetic fields, induced emf, inductance, and capacitance. The magnetic force is introduced using video clips of several demonstrations implemented by the developer. These demonstrations introduce the concept of a magnetic field and show how a beam of charged particles deflects in a magnetic field. Also, the right-hand-force-rule is introduced by a video clip. However, the torque on a current carrying
coil in a uniform magnetic is illustrated by animation. The DC motor and AC generator will be used as real-world case studies and illustrated by video clips and animation. Since this Module is not easy for student to understand, we have developed few video clips and animation to enhance the understanding of these topics. After completion, the candidates should be able to relate the force experienced by a conductor to the intensity of magnetic field and other variables. Also, they will understand Faraday and Lenz’s Laws. The assessment will include on-line testing, written test, and a case-study report. Module 5- AC Circuit Analysis: This module includes periodic functions, complex numbers, the concept of phasor, power calculation, and power factor. A power factor correction and its effect on power consumption is emphasized. Animation is used to help candidates understand difficult concepts, such as the effects of reactive (storage) elements in the circuits as well as power factor and its effect. Case studies (e.g., appliance and equipment power ratings, the efficiency of machine tools and Power factor) have been studied and animated. After completion, the candidates will be able to determine terminal voltages and currents as well as phase of the circuit. Moreover, they will be able to understand the characteristics of periodic functions, and use these techniques to analyze and solve AC circuit problems. Candidates will also be able to distinguish between real and reactive power, understand power factor correction techniques, calculate power requirements for different equipment, and understand the relationship between power consumption and the efficiency of machine tools. The assessment will include on-line testing, written test, and a case-study report. Module 6- Topics in Electrical Engineering: This Module includes other relevant topics to manufacturing engineering students (such as diodes, transformers, and operational amplifiers) to build a good foundation for the instrumentation and control knowledge areas. Animation has been used in every topic to illustrate most of the new concepts, including diode forward and reverse bias, rectifier with and without filter, self and mutual inductance, and emf. Many real-world case studies with animation have been used in this Module including modem, auto ignition system, power supply, analog to digital converter, and digital to analog converter. The candidate will gain a good understanding of diodes, transformers, operational amplifiers, and their applications in electric systems and circuits. The assessment will include on-line testing and evaluation, written test, and case-study report. Module 7- Transient Circuits: This module includes the natural response of RL, RC, and RLC circuits, as well as analogy between mechanical and electrical systems. Animation has been used to illustrate the process of charging and discharging the capacitance and inductance with electric
and magnetic fields respectively. Also, animation will illustrate the overdamped, underdamped, and critically damped responses for RLC circuits. Case studies such as pendulum and electromechanical systems, have been studied, analyzed and animated. From the introduced concepts of inductance, the students will be able to understand the principle of spark plugs. Assessment will include on-line testing, written test, and case-study report. Module 8- Digital Concepts: This module includes binary number systems, Boolean Algebra, logic gates, combination circuits, flip flops, and sequential circuits. The candidate will gain a good understanding of basic digital concepts such as logic gates, flip flops, and sequential circuits.
Development Issues The development of CBI courses initially requires a large investment. However, this cost is typically absorbed in a couple of years—corporations that regularly use CBI have saved millions of dollars of training costs, especially in reduced training time. During the development of the CBI modules, we have used Macromedia’s Authorware 3.0. Macromedia’s Authorware has the following features [13]: • It is an icon-based tool that allows professors and students to use it to develop CBI modules with a small learning curve. • The tool runs across multiple computer platforms (PCWindows, Macintosh). • The developed Module can be capsulated, shipped, and run as an executable without the development applications. • Run times are free—meaning there is no royalty fee for distribution of executable files. • It has widely available training and support. • It has a large user base, with a substantial academic representation. During CBI development, we have found that Authorware 3.0 has few limitations that we have outlined below: • When creating mathematical formulae, it is necessary to use some specific fonts, such as Math and Symbols. However, Authorware does not include those fonts in the packaged (executable) file. Hence, if the executable file runs in other machines that do not have these specific fonts, the formulae will be corrupted. To make CBI Module portable, we have drawn all the symbols and the Math characters that we might need and using them as drawn figures whenever needed. • Authorware 3.0 has limited drawing capabilities, which force us to use other tools such as Corel Draw. • Authorware can animate moving objects in different direction. However, It is not possible to flip or rotate the object while it is moving. There is also no way of creating movies as a combination of different frames.
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Therefore, it is necessary to use other tools such as 3Dstudio or Corel Draw 6.0 to create those movies. The video and sound formats that are accepted in Authorware 3.0 are limited. For example, all the sound files should be of “*.wav” format. Authorware is interfaced with other tools such as Microsoft Word and Excel is by using the command JumpOut (“program”, “document”), which is very useful. However, it is not easy to interface it with other programs such as Matlab. More specifically, we cannot run “*.m” file in Matlab by using this command directly. The user needs to type the name of the “*.m” file while Matlab is running. So far we could not find a way to create nested menus.
7. J. Brodersen, et al, “The ELF Project: Creating the 8. 9. 10.
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Conclusion The electroscience curriculum development has been funded and in development since July 1995. Five modules have been developed using Macromedia’s Authorware, a popular cross-platform multimedia development tool for computerbased instruction. Four modules have been delivered to Focus:HOPE candidates. During the first delivery, a textbook was assigned. The candidates like the CBI modules but did not like the textbook. We are in the process of completing the remaining modules. Then, we will improve the quality of the CBI modules by adding more animation, video/audio clips and real-world case studies. The CBI development is labor intensive, and requires continuous improvement.
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Acknowledgments The project has been funded by NSF/Greenfield Coalition. The author would like to acknowledge help received from various individuals associated with this project and thank them for participation in this project: Dr. Mahmoud Abdullah, Professors Nancy Bow, Dr. Mohan Krishnan, and Dr. C.J. Lin.
