Development of a Distance Learning Concept for a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering Programme

AbstractThe University of Applied Sciences Aschaffenburg and the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt will start a cooperative Bachelor of Engineering Program in Electrical Engineering in 2013. This will be offered as a distance learning program, allowing participants to continue their professional education while studying at the same time, with a total duration of approximately 9 semesters (4.5 years). What is special about this program is the focus on people with a professional on-the-job education, with no high school diploma in general. This professional education system is unique in Germany. Its main overall goal is to minimize the lack of engineers, especially in the field of electrical engineering, which is currently existent.In this paper, results from surveys held among post graduate students in a distant learning course in Electrical Engineering (EE) are discussed in order to develop an effective teaching and learning strategy. Therefore, the students’ opinion about a currently existing distance learning program was evaluated, and results are used as an input for the new program to be developed. It is interesting that students in EE are rather conservative in their preferences. They rely more on printed learning material and face to face training like contact weekends rather than on Web 2.0 learning units. This has to be considered, if non-traditional students should be attracted which are definitively less affine to e-learning and web based course material, than our master students