ABSTRACT
Historically, engineering education has had an ambivalent relationship to online education, falling behind other disciplines in terms of leveraging this approach to reach learners. While some of the resistance has been based on legitimate pedagogical challenges, like hands-on labs, much of it stems from concerns regarding the changing role of faculty and beliefs about the quality of online learning overall. Advances in information communications technology (ICT) have redefined the boundaries and interactional pedagogies of online learning by stretching its scope and deepening its interconnectedness. Learning interactions that were not perceived possible before can now be facilitated, including the opportunity to communicate with a wider audience, the means to share and compare information, and the ability to negotiate meaning and co-construct knowledge. This chapter argues that engineering educators should both leverage online education to reach more learners and also become leaders who move the enterprise forward in positive ways, ultimately ensuring online engineering education becomes a powerful tool as we approach this complex and unpredictable global future. The chapter reviews prior work on online learning, including theoretical foundations and instructional methods, and proposes ways in which engineering educators can implement online learning fruitfully.
