Curriculum granularity

Traditions have us tied to a curriculum delivery format that is no longer viable and is detrimental to the student learning process. For well over a 100 years, undergraduate engineering programs have been structured within the format of academic-year semesters or quarters, and within these, to lumps of learning packages of 3- to 5-credit-hour courses. Such a traditional system developed naturally in that it accommodated the structure of institutional teaching. However, we no longer need be restrained by these traditions. The application of IT permits us to deliver subject material in smaller lumps that accommodate the learner as opposed to the teacher. By using computer-based learning and accommodating such technologies as the CD-ROM and Internet, certain types of courses are best delivered in modules. A typical 3-credit-hour course is best delivered by this technology in smaller lumps of 15 to 20 modules. Each engineering discipline might distribute these learning modules in a course over that program´s 4- to 5-year degree where best suited for the students (e.g. chemical engineers need a different delivery pattern than electrical engineering in thermodynamics). Also, a core course in the basics of electronics and electrical systems is needed in an entirely different sequence by those majoring in electrical engineering than by those majoring in industrial engineering. By reducing the lumpiness of the subject material from 3 to 5 credit-hours to smaller modules for each course, subject material can be delivered “just in time”. Another advantage is that students experience improved learning using IT