Work in Progress: Creating Alternative Learning Strategies for Transfer Engineering Programs.

This paper presents preliminary results of a collaborative project, Creating Alternative Learning Strategies for Transfer Engineering Programs (CALSTEP). The project aims to strengthen community college engineering programs using distance education and other alternative delivery strategies that will enable small-to-medium community college engineering programs to support lower-division engineering courses that students need to be competitive for transfer to four-year engineering programs. Funded by a three-year grant through the National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (NSF IUSE) program, CALSTEP will leverage existing educational resources and develop new ones for online lecture courses, as well as core engineering laboratory courses that are delivered either completely online, or with limited face-to-face interactions. The initial areas of focus for laboratory course development are: Introduction to Engineering, Engineering Graphics, Materials Science, and Circuit Analysis. CALSTEP will also develop alternative models of flipped classroom instruction to improve student success and enhance student access to engineering courses that otherwise could not be supported in traditional delivery modes due to low enrollment. The project will also evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum and train other community college engineering faculty in the effective use of the curriculum and resources developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]