Klasing discusses the inability of school library facilities to meet current challenges for the delivery of programs and information. Callison then provides an overview of this issue on planning learning environments for school media centers, which contains four articles covering space requirements, ergonomic design, legislation on equal access,…

Summarizes federal legislation regarding equal access for students with disabilities and discusses environmental barriers to accessibility in the library media center. Solutions to these design problems are suggested in the following areas: material formats and space requirements; the physical setting, including furniture, floor coverings,…

Briefly describes several joint enterprises between Soviet technical institutes and European firms involved in computer software development and other aspects of technical engineering. Explains the role played by Soviet governmental agencies in sponsoring these joint projects. Describes problems with the projects. Identifies benefits, including…

Research in human computer interaction and instructional design can provide insights into effective methods for training microcomputer users. Suggestions include utilizing error recognition and recovery, development of mental models, simplification of documentation, and using cognitive approaches that allow transfer of knowledge to new situations.…

To build understanding of, and the ability to use, first-year science and engineering calculus, students were introduced to differential equations and asked to carry out research on differential equation modeling projects. Describes a model for the research paper; appendices provide a copy of the student handout and five examples of student…

The era for international practice for engineers has arrived, and each engineering education system must revise its programs to prepare graduates for practice in the global marketplace. This includes foreign-language instruction, education in cultural awareness, opportunities for international work experience, and greater emphasis on history,…

Describes a project consisting of reanalyzing survey data showing Asian-American science and engineering majors to be less content with their undergraduate experiences and their field of study than other students. Results raised the question as to whether Asian Americans were really less content or whether their style of responding instead…

The research project set out to improve reading skills among third level engineering students at an Egyptian College of Technology where many of them were dissatisfied with existing negative attitudes towards English and the inadequacies of the teaching that they received. A needs analysis was carried out to establish what they and their teachers…

Virtually every academic department in an institute of higher education requires Web presence as a critical component of its information technology strategy. The problem of how to leverage the World Wide Web and build effective and useful departmental Web sites seems to have long been solved. Yet browsing academic Web sites from around the world…

Increasing numbers of young people use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for education, work and leisure activities. Research on ICT and Upper Limb Disorders (ULDs) in adults has shown that functional impairment, pain and discomfort in the upper limbs, neck and shoulder increases with frequency and duration of exposure to computer…

This article presents the results of a small-scale empirical study investigating engineering students' perceptions of writing in the classroom and workplace. It asks questions regarding the types and frequency of documents engineering students have written in school and internship settings, and it reveals both the strategies used to complete those…

In software engineering education, large projects are widely recognized as a useful way of exposing students to the real-world difficulties of team software development. But large projects are difficult to put into practice. First, educators rarely have additional time to manage software projects. Second, classrooms have inherent limitations that…

The learning initiative described in this paper looks at how the adoption of a flexible, online learning approach can be used to optimize teaching and learning in engineering materials to a variety of engineering disciplines. The main driver for adopting this approach was to increase the effectiveness of delivery of subject matter. Practical…

In this research our purpose was to examine the effectiveness of a program in retaining women in science, mathematics, and engineering majors. We compared undergraduate women participating in a support and mentoring program with nonprogram students in terms of their retention in these majors. The pretest and posttest results over one academic year…

This course workbook is designed to help students understand the principles of active learning, student assessment, and team training used in Arizona State University's core engineering curriculum. Eight sections focus on: (1) active learning, teaching and learning styles, and cooperative learning; (2) student assessment, levels of learning, and…