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Curriculum deceleration and on-line learning communities for working students

Online interactive learning communities and a decelerated five-year engineering program, are proposed as possible strategies for increasing the number of undergraduate students obtaining degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. These strategies are aimed at minimizing the differences in the learning environment and the support systems at residential campuses and those at urban commuter schools. The learning communities provide on-line mentoring and tutorial support to all the community members. Initial focus is to establish on-line interactive learning communities for all incoming students led by the student engineering professional societies. Five-year decelerated curricula for both electrical engineering and computer engineering programs have been developed, which are currently being used to advise students. Preliminary results from the on-line learning communities for incoming students are very encouraging.