The Michigan Engineering Fund is an invaluable resource, providing scholarship funding and critical support for the exploration and implementation of new ideas and programs that enable the College to fulfill its educational mission. Gifts to the MEF helped to subsidize numerous CoE assets such as the Office of Instructional Technology, which is promoting the development and use of Instructional Technology, a method of learning that’s making its mark as a progressive instructional tool.

The Magic of Instructional Technology

Michigan Engineering Fund Gifts Create Opportunities Scholarships Beginning this past year, the Michigan Engineering Fund is providing needed support for scholarships. Laboratory Upgrades The Michigan Engineering Fund provides critical support for new equipment and upgraded facilities. Last year, three labs received funding: Instructional labs 395 and 495 provide essential laboratory experience and instruction for undergraduates. The undergraduate Marine Design Lab gives students access to commercial design software, state-of-the-art computers, connection ports for laptop computers, a higher Internet bandwidth, teamwork areas and presentation equipment. New Programs The MEF enables the College to back new ideas and programs that support the College’s educational mission. One example is the Office of Instructional Technology (OIT), which the College created with seed money from the Fund. Exceptional Resources Most recently, gifts to the MEF enabled the College to create the Molecular Biology/Tissue Culture Laboratory, which will give research teams from several departments access to specialized equipment for life sciences research. Other examples include Fund support for the College’s computer network and a renovated Web site that will better address student needs.

Instructional Technology is the use of digital, multimedia and network technology to disseminate information more efficiently and to enhance learning and teaching in a highly visual and interactive way. And whereas time and location are major considerations for conventional instruction, they’re of no consequence with Instructional Technology – students use Instructional Technology to learn when they want, where they want and, frequently, what they want.

Phil Treib (BSE CO ’97), director, Office of Instructional Technology, said that he views Instructional Technology at the College as a “comprehensive effort to bring together the components of technology, classroom facilities, and faculty expectations and goals to create a learning environment that benefits both students and faculty.”

Scott Fogler, Vennema Professor of Chemical Engineering, was an early advocate of Instructional Technology and created a number of courses before the Office of Instructional Technology even existed. He said that the discipline has the potential to “take class discussions to higher levels. For example through the use of interactive simulations, students have the ability to change the parameter values and ask ‘what if’ questions, thereby providing the opportunity to increase their creative and critical thinking skills. Instructional Technology also allows material to be disseminated in a variety of ways as well as being a great motivational tool.”

Perhaps most importantly, Instructional Technology addresses the fact that not all students learn in the same way. For a “hands-on” student, attending a lecture isn’t the best way to learn. Fogler pointed out that Instructional Technology gives instructors “the opportunity to address a variety of learning styles described by the Felder/ Solomon Index.” (The Felder/ Solomon Index of Learning Styles is an instrument used to assess preferences on four dimensions of a learning style model formulated by Richard M. Felder and Linda K. Silverman. The four dimensions are active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal and sequential/global.)

With Instructional Technology, students can easily get an overview of the material and, if they choose, can use “hot buttons” to get detailed explanations. The interactive nature of Instructional Technology also allows students to do self-testing and virtual simulations. “I feel Instructional Technology has had tremendous impact on students,” Fogler said, “not only here at Michigan but at other universities, as evidenced by student comments and email messages from other universities as well as here. Virtually all the students are more motivated by the interactive games and simulations. In the end-of-term surveys at Michigan, virtually all the students indicated they learned and enjoyed using the interactive technology and that they made significant gains in their critical and creative thinking skills.”

The Future of Instructional Technology at CoE

Seeing the usefulness of Instructional Technology and its growing popularity as an educational tool, the College of Engineering gave the Office of Instructional Technology the task of reaching out to faculty. One of the more visible successes has been a series of brown-bag sessions that showcase Instructional Technology and its availability at the College. The Office of Instructional Technology is also working with instructors who’ve adopted Instructional Technology and could help identify colleagues who might be interested in learning more about the process, technology and benefits of Instructional Technology.

Treib said that the Office of Instructional Technology is working on projects that “include both facility improvements and faculty projects. On the facility side, we’re planning improvements to the technology installed in many classrooms, auditoriums and conference/seminar rooms. This will add new functionality and improved ease-of-use to many rooms.” Treib added that the Office of Instructional Technology was exploring new spaces in which to showcase and evaluate equipment such as high-tech lecterns, new display devices, mobile videoconference equipment, wireless technologies, and new tech-equipped furniture. Ultimately, the Office of Instructional Technology intends to create an environment where technology in the classroom is ubiquitous and easy to use, where faculty feel confident in using new technologies in their courses, and where students benefit from the rich learning environment and new opportunities for collaboration.