Project Overview

The rapid growth of web-based education has created a need for a revised methodology in educational curriculum and delivery. This project addresses the crucial experiential component for the education of technicians. Hands-on laboratory exercises traditionally ensure that the learner is able to transfer theoretical knowledge into practical application. This hands-on laboratory experience is critical to the development of a quality site-based program. If technicians are to be effectively educated through distance education, these experiential curriculum components need to be re-created for an intra/internet curriculum. Without this experiential component, education for technicians will continue to be partially to totally site-based.

In Phase One of this project, San Juan College in partnership with Maricopa Advanced Technology Education Center (MATEC) (Proposal # 0101725) developed competency based experiential virtual laboratory exercises for use in a distance learning environment within a technical discipline. Twenty two Virtual laboratory modules were developed for an Introduction to Programmable Logic Control and an Introduction to Process Measurement. One component of the Phase One project was automated assessment and feedback using high-level simulations to both test student work and to provide real time feedback to the student. The focus of Phase Two is to raise feedback to a new level using an artificial intelligence tool, Intelligent Tutor Systems (ITS).

The primary objective of the Phase Two project (0302864) is to create a help system for the distance learner using ITS software that is 'smart' enough so that when a student gets to an impasse, eighty percent of the time the ITS will be able to get them back on track. More correctly, the ITS will be smart enough to proactively intervene before the student gets to an impasse. The project is on schedule and projected to be somewhat ahead of schedule by project year end with no major changes in the scope of the project. The first draft of exercise module one is scheduled for completion by June 30, 2004.

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