Multi-Institute Team Teaching (MITT): A Novel Approach to Highly Specialized Graduate Education
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Multi-Institute Team Teaching (MITT): A Novel Approach to Highly Specialized Graduate Education William R. Heffner1, Himanshu Jain1, Steve Martin2, Kathleen Richardson3, and Eric Skaar3 1
Int. Mat. Inst. for New Functionality in Glass, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA. Materials Science and Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA 3 Materials Science and Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA 2
Abstract As engineering becomes more and more specialized, both the faculty resources and number of interested students become limited. Consequently, very frequently highly specialized graduate courses are not offered, especially in disciplines like Materials with small faculty and enrollment. NSF’s International Materials Institute for New Functionality in Glass (IMI-NFG) has successfully addressed this problem by successfully introducing the concept of multi-institution team teaching (MITT). It brings together via internet both the expert professors and students from many universities. By pooling the talent of various instructors, the courses become technically stronger and students learn advanced topics that would be available otherwise. As an example, a recent MITT course included instructors from 10 US institutions, and students from many more US and international universities. Software such as 'Adobe Connect' is used for the live delivery of lectures, wherein students can see the instructor and Power Point slides as in a normal classroom. The students may ask questions any time during the lecture, and the instructor would respond immediately. They register and pay tuition at their home institution, so that no exchange of funds is involved between universities. Survey results support that a majority of the enrolled students liked the format and delivery of the course, and more than 75% students felt that multiple instructors, who “taught information of their expertise”, made the course stronger. In conclusion, the concept of MITT has been successfully demonstrated for teaching highly specialized graduate courses. 1. Background Glass science and engineering has been taught as a discipline of engineering for centuries, although only at very few universities. With increasing interest in more modern amorphous materials, many universities in the US hired faculty to teach glass in the late 20th century, while the traditional centers of glass education diversified into other materials. So even though the total number of professors at US universities, who are active in glass research may not have decreased over the years, most of such universities have just one token faculty member in glass science. This person typically teaches just one glass course, which ends up being an introduction to the whole field. Even when the lone professor of glass offers an advanced course, there are too few students in any given term, who sign up for such a specialized course, and it is difficult for the Administration to approve courses that have fewer than half a dozen students. The resul
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