Curriculum reform at Rensselaer

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is currently engaged in major curriculum reform. In particular, the curricula in all the Schools at Rensselaer are being changed to a 128 credit four by four (4X4) Baccalaureate program. The School of Engineering at Rensselaer is a leader in these activities. In addition, many of our large enrolment courses are being converted into a studio format. These courses have few lectures by professors but have intensive interaction among the students. Indeed, the students learn by doing and many of these courses involve extensive use of multimedia computer technology to aid interactive learning. Rensselaer has pioneered the use of computers in the classroom. We currently have calculus, physics, chemistry and some of our large enrolment introductory engineering courses taught in this manner. Moreover, we are in the process of converting a number of upper level engineering courses to this format. Our experience has been that a properly formulated multimedia computer-based course promotes learning in the classroom, and less contact hours are required to deliver it. Moreover, we have found that teaching is not the same thing as learning and that hypertext and computer-based visualization capabilities significantly enhance learning and customer (i.e., student) satisfaction. Thus the development of multimedia computer-based studio classes are a key feature of the curriculum reform activities at Rensselaer.