Development and Delivery of an Online Graduate Certificate in Materials Characterization for Working Professionals
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Development and Delivery of an Online Graduate Certificate in Materials Characterization for Working Professionals Pamela L. Dickrell1 and Luisa A. Dempere2 1 UF EDGE, College of Engineering, University of Florida, P.O. Box 116100, Gainesville, FL 32611, U.S.A. 2 Major Analytical Instrumentation Center, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Florida, P.O. Box 116400, Gainesville, FL 32611, U.S.A. ABSTRACT Within materials science and engineering industries there exists a need for continual professional development and lifelong learning. University materials science and engineering departments and materials related centers have highly qualified instructional faculty, and course management infrastructure that can be utilized to deliver needed continuing education to working professionals via distance learning. This work examines the development and first year delivery results of an online graduate certificate in modern materials characterization techniques for working scientists and engineers.
INTRODUCTION Using industry demand as a driving force, a three course credited graduate-level certificate is created for place bound professional students with online, asynchronous delivery of course materials, without requiring participant travel. This certificate combines the practical expertise of a university based materials characterization instrumentation center with the instructional experience of graduate faculty to deliver course content relevant to practicing scientists and engineers who see the utilization of materials characterization in their workplace and desire a better working understanding of how techniques can be used to improve their research and development. In order to ensure success of distance delivery of a graduate certificate, three main organizations work together at the University of Florida. The first is the UF EDGE (Electronic Delivery of Graduate Engineering) Program, which houses all the distance learning infrastructure and services for the UF College of Engineering. The second is the Major Analytical Instrumentation Center (MAIC), which houses all the relevant materials characterization instrumentation and technical knowledge that is covered in the courses that are part of the certificate. The third group is the UF Department of Materials Science & Engineering which supports the offering of the certificate and whose faculty develop and deliver the curriculum covered in the online courses.
Figure 1. Three organizations within the University of Florida, College of Engineering and roles in the collaborative effort of an online certificate in Materials Characterization. Online courses comprising the Materials Characterization certificate are all regular University of Florida graduate courses, captured electronically in specially equipped studio classrooms, with live audiences of graduate students concurrently enrolled in the same courses as the distance learning certificate students. Faculty are provided a range of instructional options including a regular chalkb
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