ABSTRACT
Individual faculty and institutions regularly develop novel educational materials that could benefit others, but these innovations often fail to gain traction outside the developers’ circle as barriers to adoption are numerous. We present evidence that development targeting adaptation, rather than complete adoption, of innovative materials and methods may be a more successful approach. Specifically, if faculty members from multiple institutions are involved in the development, agility across diverse academic requirements and institutional cultures informs that process. in the described example, faculty members from multiple institutions developed online learning modules based on their individual areas of expertise related to the topic of wireless sensor networks. The modules integrated learning of systems thinking with traditional sub-disciplines in electrical and computer engineering and were delivered in a blended-learning format. While faculty from three institutions developed the original content for a single course, materials have been successfully utilized in multiple courses at several institutions.
Jeff Frolik
Paul G. Flikkema
Tom Weller
Carol Haden
Wayne Shiroma
Rhonda Franklin