Engineering Manager
Resume:
Case Studies Series
Colleges of Engineering
Two Top-Ten Colleges of Engineering Employ Prometheus
for Online Programs and for Enhancing Traditional Courses
B
oth the University of Texas at
Austin (UT) and the University Prometheus was the answer to providing an immediate course manage-
of Michigan (UM) have ment tool that was scalable as opposed to building a course tool in-house.
Colleges of Engineering that are rated
- Kathy Schmidt, University of Texas at Austin
in the top ten in the country by U.S.
Faculty Innovation Center Manager
News. Another similarity between these
two prestigious Colleges of Engineer-
ing is that both use Prometheus in a Program recently moved to a com- practitioners to their colleagues from
variety of ways to enhance their pletely online environment powered by the software industry.
teaching and learning. Prometheus technology. SWPM, which Another class being delivered online
is rapidly gaining international using Prometheus is a popular for-
UT Center Helps Faculty
recognition, is taught by expert continued on page 2
Improve Effectiveness
In June of 2000, Prometheus was
GW s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
introduced to UT s College of Engi-
neering through its Faculty Innovation
Seeing Benefits of Using Prometheus
Center (FIC), a team of instructional
I
designers, multi-media experts and n this newsletter, we have high articles, multimedia examples and
systems analysts who work closely with lighted how Prometheus is being URL s for her students to read prior to
UT s engineering faculty to improving utilized by colleges of engineering at physically attending class.
teaching effectiveness. the University of Texas at Austin and Even more important for this class,
As of June 2001, approximately 80 the University of Michigan. the system allows the students to upload
engineering faculty were using However, The George Washington their multimedia assignments so that I
Prometheus, primarily to augment their University (GW) created Prometheus can view them from my office com-
traditional courses with online re- from the ground up and is currently the puter, says Martin. In the past,
sources. More engineering faculty are largest user of Prometheus in the students had to turn in zip disks or CD s
expected to come on board in upcoming country. One of the foremost examples which were a nuisance to deal with. It
semesters. The goal, according to FIC of Prometheus usage in colleges of has also eliminated a large amount of
Manager Kathy Schmidt, is to eventu- engineering is GW s School of Engi- photocopying of notes and materials for
ally have the majority of the College of neering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), students. Students who miss class can
Engineering s 250 faculty members where Prometheus usage continues to always find whatever they missed,
incorporate Prometheus into the climb. eliminating the need to bring notes
College s traditional face-to-face I am very pleased with my first-time from previous classes each week.
classes, as well as its online classes. use of Prometheus this semester, says During class we can display examples
More than Technology Enhanced Dianne Martin, computer science and student projects for peer review.
Face-to-Face Courses professor with SEAS. Overall, the (Prometheus) system is
In addition to enhancing traditional Martin s traditionally taught gradu- easy to use, quite secure, very efficient
courses, Prometheus is the course tool ate computer science course on multime- to update, and available for me to access
behind UT s popular 48-week noncredit dia is being considerably enhanced by from home, office, or on the road. So
Software Project Management Certifi- Prometheus. She says Prometheus far it has exhibited a high level of
cate Program (SWPM). The SWPM allows her to easily upload slides, reliability. I give it a solid A rating!
IN THIS ISSUE:
Engineering Colleges Employ Prometheus 1-2 UT s SQI Converts to Hybrid Program 3
The George Washington University Sees Benefits 1 UM Grad Programs Go Completely Online 4
Case Studies Series Colleges of Engineering
Colleges of Engineering Employ Prometheus
continued from page 1
The Prometheus team has focused very clearly on the market like ours
credit course at UT on GIS in Water
as users and have been very responsive with upgrades and working on
Resources. This course, taught by
Professor David Maidment, an interna- things that we have suggested.
tionally recognized specialist in surface - Ed Borbely, University of Michigan
water hydrology and the application of Director of Center for Professional Development
geographic information systems to
hydrology, covers the principles and
degree programs offered completely An International Audience
operation of geographic information
online: A Master of Engineering in Both programs are attracting
systems.
Automotive Engineering and a Master students from all over the world,
Most recently, FIC utilized
of Engineering in Manufacturing. primarily from North America, but also
Prometheus to create the College of
The Center for Professional Devel- from Mexico, Luxembourg and China,
Engineering s new learning portal,
opment (CPD) at UM develops, says Borbely. Some of our students are
UTwired, to further support the use of
delivers and supports the courses online at Ford or General Motors locations
technology in the engineering curricu-
for the College of Engineering. Winter where they might be taking one of our
lum.
2001 was the first time that the courses based on a competency they
Meeting ABET Standards
complete Automotive and Manufac- want to pick up and drop into another
In the meantime, FIC is working
turing degree programs were offered degree program.
diligently at incorporating Accredita-
online. Between the two programs, 15
tion Board for Engineering and
courses were offered online last
Expanding Online Horizons with
Technology (ABET) standards into all
semester, and 50 faculty who partici-
Prometheus
of its Prometheus-driven classes.
pate in the UM engineering online
According to CPD Director Ed
ABET standards are very important in
programs are currently using
Borbely, four additional graduate
our college, says Schmidt. We are
Prometheus. Outside of the online
degree programs - in wireless inte-
modifying syllabi so that they follow
environment, CPD has not promoted
grated microsystems, plastics engineer-
ABET criteria, and we are exploring
Prometheus as a teaching tool for
ing, pharmaceutical engineering and
more ways of integrating ABET
traditional classes, since the College of
financial engineering - are slated to go
standards into the Prometheus course
Engineering funds their own home-
completely online, supported by the
tools.
grown course management system, says
Prometheus platform, within the next
Scalability Borbely.
18 months. Additionally, plans are
Prometheus was the answer to
currently in effect to convert two Word of Mouth Brings More Users
providing an immediate course man-
traditional, on-campus noncredit However, Borbely added that about
agement tool that was scaleable as
certificate programs - an Accelerated 30 additional faculty who do not teach
opposed to building a course tool in-
Six Sigma Certificate and a Lean online have started to use Prometheus
house, adds Schmidt. We had started
Manufacturing Certificate - to online to enhance their traditional classes.
to develop a home-grown course tool,
delivery with Prometheus. We ve only given instructor accounts
but I was very worried about the
The Automotive degree program is to faculty (outside of the online
scalability. My staff is young, and I
driven by the need for technical leaders program) who have heard about
don t know how long they will stay.
in the automotive industry. It s ideally Prometheus through word of mouth and
You don t want to create something and
suited to working engineers who desire have asked us. They use it for all their
then not be able to fully support it.
broader graduate experience but cannot courses. It is popular in that sense. The
Prometheus was very appealing. Our
be away from work full-time. The word of mouth has spread, and this is
systems analysts actually liked this
Manufacturing degree is offered in without no real support from us.
course tool instead of criticizing it.
collaboration with General Motor s Overall Borbely added that UM
Powering Highly Regarded Automotive
Technical Education Program, and it engineering faculty have reacted very
Graduate Programs at UM
features world-renowned faculty positively, due to the fact that they have
At the University of Michigan
teaching skills across both engineering control [of creating their courses]. The
College of Engineering, Prometheus
and business disciplines. ease of use, the intuitive nature of
has been in use for about one year and
Prometheus, is a big plus.
is the technology used for two graduate
2
Case Studies Series Colleges of Engineering
UT Software Quality Institute Converts to Hybrid Program
W
hen the Faculty Innovation
The online mode will enable us to expand. . . We ve been getting
Center (FIC) at the Univer
sity of Texas (UT) at Austin, inquiries from all over the world.
College of Engineering adopted - Linda Shafer, University of Texas at Austin
Prometheus as its course tool, one of Program Manager, Software Quality Insitute
the first departments seeking to merge
new technology into their course
tools, Prometheus will also help
work with students who used the online
offerings was UT s Software Quality
facilitate team projects, which are an
mode when they could not attend class.
Institute (SQI). In particular, SQI
important element of the SWPM
There was no drastic change or loss of
wanted to convert its popular face-to-
program. If we have students from all
quality brought into the popular face-
face, 48-week Software Project
over the world, we will not be able to
to-face classes, and UT has learned a
Management Certificate Program
have them stand up and give presenta-
great deal about providing the program
(SWPM) to the online environment.
tions, says Shafer. We ll have them
online. The program will soon be
Serving the Local Community
do it virtually.
offered to SQI s newest international
and Beyond
We are going to ask students to
client, Schlumberger Oilfield Services
By going online, SQI could better
prepare a lesson within Prometheus and
and SchlumberferSema.
serve the busy Austin software special-
come [into the virtual and face-to-face
Learning Lessons
ist community with the necessary
clas]) and be prepared to discuss what
Shafer says that one lesson learned
flexibility of online learning, plus it
they have studied, so there will be more
is that the SWPM video lectures need
would give SQI the opportunity to start
student interaction [both onsite and
to be shortened. Typically the face-to-
offering its program both nationwide
online].
face classes consist of two 75-minute
and internationally.
Through the Prometheus Groups
lectures. We found that it s very
In September 2000, SQI offered a
function, collaborative learning teams
difficult for students to sit down and
hybrid on-campus/online, one-day pilot
can communicate with each other via
watch three hours of streaming video,
course called the Software Project
email, chat or threaded discussions, as
says Shafer. Hence, SQI is encouraging
Management Refresher. The traditional
well as exchange files, in a designated
instructors to modularize their material
classroom refresher course was video-
group-specific environment within the
into 15-minute lectures augmented by
taped and simultaneously streamed
Prometheus platform. Additionally,
question-and-answer periods and/or
online.
Prometheus s tracking feature allows
student exercises.
SQI invited previous graduates of
faculty to assess the depth of student
We re also working on teaching
the program to revisit the campus for
interaction within such groups.
our instructors more about the
the refresher and also enlisted several
Being located in a state capital as
constructivist method of learning -
students to take the refresher online
well as a growing city has brought a
setting objectives for what the student
from remote locations to test the
mixture of students into the UT
should walk away knowing, adds
streaming media.
program from local state agencies with
Shafer. One of our strengths is that the
The refresher reduced the mystery
large IT shops, as well as from small
instructors are practitioners and their
surrounding the set-up procedures for
start-ups and large corporations such as
experiences always bring these classes
us. The video capture and live stream-
Dell, Motorola and Cisco.
to life. On the other hand, these
ing of the lecture has worked well from
The online mode will enable us to
practitioners don t necessarily have
this very first try, says Project Man-
expand, says Shafer. Through our
platform skills, so we are doing a little
ager Linda Shafer. One month later,
Web site, we ve been getting inquiries
bit more training of the trainers, not
SQI introduced the entire program in
from all over the world, [including] a
only to teach general platform skills,
the new hybrid mode, utilizing the
lot from India and the Philippines.
but specifically how to present in this
Prometheus platform with all its course
We re going international, and that s
online environment, which mostly has
tools, including streaming media of the
one of the reasons why we are so
to do with smaller and smaller mod-
program s on-campus lectures.
interested in getting this online version
ules.
This first-time run of the entire
right the first time through
program did not interrupt the face-to- Facilitating Student Interaction Prometheus.
face classes except for adding a filming In addition to all the typical course
crew and a class instructor/mentor to
3
Case Studies Series Colleges of Engineering
UM Graduate Degree Programs Go Completely Online
T
he Center for Professional
I like the separation of storage through the tiered architecture; the database
Development (CPD) at the
backend structure, the middle ColdFusion and the Web-server front-end make it easy
University of Michigan (UM)
to do anything; even administrating the system is very easy.
College of Engineering has provided a
- Max Zain, Manager of MEonline, University of Michigan
variety of traditional distance education
classes for more than thirty years.
Over this time, CPD s IT staff has Piloting Change popular things even for our on-campus
built customized databases that cater By Fall 2000, CPD piloted two students, says Zain. Students were
primarily to the administration of their graduate-level courses with Prometheus excited about it because they could view
own operations. However, as distance using a hybrid distance education/face- lectures they might have missed before
education became more technology to-face model: Automotive Engineering taking their exams.
enhanced, the prospect of incorporating and Mechanism Design. Historically, Faculty are also seeing the benefits.
course-content delivery capabilities the on-campus lectures for these classes They like the fact that it has a similar
administratively into CPD s operational were videotaped and shipped to interface no matter what they want to
databases was a new challenge. automotive industry work sites in North do, says Zain. They also like student
America and Latin America. The sites tracking.
Finding the Right Software
had a minimum of four students who Zain and his staff are also pleased.
In early 1999, CPD had to make a
typically viewed the tapes together in a I like the separation of storage through
decision to build in a software package
collaborative environment. the tiered architecture; the database
that would make their computer system
Now, with Prometheus, CPD could backend structure, the middle
more than just a data broker, says Max
stream the lectures and give students ColdFusion and the Web-server front-
Zain, manager of MEonline. We
the option of viewing them on their end make it easy to do anything; even
needed something that would let the
own terms. Based on Prometheus s administrating the system is very easy,
students and faculty handle what they
ability to support streaming video, we he says. We also like the fact that we
needed on their own without us being
started capturing video in real time and can fully customize it and extend it;
the bottleneck. We needed an easy-to-
dumping it into the two courses, says we re fully bent on utilizing this
use and very flexible software pack-
Zain. For course handouts, we feature.
age.
scanned them and uploaded them for Addtionally Zain says he s very
Zain says CPD started looking at
the professor. So it was really light- excited about the new files tree struc-
quite a few of the popular course
weight for the professors. All they ture for posting files. The new naviga-
management system providers, but we
needed to do was let students know tion and hierarchical view of your files
could not come to a conclusion until
their homework would be online. is much better in Version 5. We like
about a year later when we heard about
that.
Prometheus. Springboard to Success
Borbely adds that on-campus and
What drew CPD to Prometheus? It These two pilot courses were the
online students will more readily
satisfied all the bases we were looking springboard for allowing UM to update
collaborate on group projects through
for, says Zain. It s web-based; it s a the programs in both Master of
Prometheus s Groups and Projects
tiered system, database back-ended and Engineering in Automotive Engineer-
functions. Having people from [off-
easily customizable. So we quickly ing and Master of Engineering in
campus] automotive companies
decided that Prometheus was what we Manufacturing to modern versions with
collaborate with our master s degree
wanted to bring in. web-based components.
on-campus students will really add a lot
By Winter 2001 every course we
Creating a Custom Interface
to these degree programs.
offered via traditional distance learning
Once that decision was made, Zain
[in the two degree programs] we also
says, events happened quickly. In July
offered using video streaming and the
and August 2000 CPD installed For a complete list of
other features of Prometheus to
Prometheus, trained internal staff and Prometheus features,
enhance what is happening on campus
created MEonline, their new web-based visit www.prometheus.com
and extend this enhanced product to
courseware application, powered by or call toll-free
people wherever they are, says CPD
Prometheus, but with their own custom
Director Ed Borbely.
interface.
email: ****@**********.***
Streaming video became one of the
4
Contact this candidate