3.2.1 The Focus of Educational Goals of ESCAPE
The discipline oriented goals of ESCAPE are illustrated by
LeBold, the director of the project,
who believed that the integration of the materials within the regular first and second
year engineering curriculum would lead to the following outcomes:
1. More effective selection of college fields, majors and courses.
2. More optimal placement of students in beginning and advanced level courses.
3. Higher satisfaction and retention of qualified students within engineering and science.
4. Significant improvements in educational and career-planning and satisfaction.
(LeBold, Hopper & Feghali, 1991)
An examination of the goals of the project reveals that they would clearly result in
benefits to both learner and the broader discipline if they were to be achieved.
A further illustration of the duality of ESCAPE's mission is found in one particular
aspect designed to result in benefits to the learner and discipline. One long term
goal was to create "intelligent microworlds" based upon critical problems and ideas
in major Engineering disciplines. This aspect of the project demonstrates
the overall commitments of the project's director to mutually beneficial learner oriented
and discipline oriented outcomes. "Intelligent microworlds" are interactive problem-solving
environments with multiple modes of performance depending on, and responsive to the knowledge,
interest, or needs of the users, and are capable of the following:
1. Solving problems in a step-by step fashion using the same methods that beginning students
would be expected to learn.
2. Explaining actions and strategies in an understandable fashion as the problem proceeds.
3. Monitoring, advising, assisting and critiquing the work of students when they attempt
to solve problems.(Feurzeig, 1987)
"Intelligent microworlds" would provide dynamic illustrations of the types of problems
encountered in engineering disciplines, and they would also help students to discriminate
between specific fields and functions of engineering. This integration of
"intelligent microworlds" with multimedia materials would be a motivating way
to introduce new or prospective students to engineering problems and techniques.
They would begin to improve their engineering problem-solving skills and knowledge
about the engineering disciplines, while constructing for themselves their desired
knowledge about engineering careers.
While the "intelligent microworlds", if achieved, would have provided a much higher
degree of learner interaction than traditionally afforded by textbooks and lectures,
another aspect of the project which was successfully accomplished on a regular basis
went even further towards learner construction, to actually involve the student in
making their own materials to serve their own personal needs.
In one part of the project, students were shown how to use HyperCard to create
individualized "career-planning" workbooks and a life planning disk. This entailed
providing the students with modifiable and extensible templates in which they stored
electronic versions of their own autobiography, resume, life plan, and electronic copies
of the results of different surveys they took throughout the course (Strong Interest Inventory,
Myers-Briggs, Purdue Interest Questionnaire, and Functional Skills Inventory).
The addition of the self-constructed workbook gave students more active control over
constructing their own experience as they moved beyond interaction to actually participating
in the construction of information they would use in decisions about their own careers.
This aspect of the project was the most learner oriented and one of the strongest aspects
relative to the goal of increasing the likelihood that students would thoughtfully plan
their careers, most likely within the field of engineering.