Pioneering Internet-based MSc Keeps Electronic Engineers up to Speed,  2 March 1998

A pioneering MSc course, delivered almost entirely through the Internet, has been launched under the EPSRC's Integrated Graduate Development Scheme.

The course, Advanced Microelectronics for Industrialists, is a joint venture between Bolton Institute and the Northumbria University. Students on the course are furnished with a high specification PC, appropriate communications software, and, uniquely, a high-speed ISDN link.

Course material is posted on the course's internet server, to be accessed and downloaded by the students in their own homes. The material is supplemented by text books where appropriate, and by links to other useful and relevant sites on the World Wide Web.

The course's co-ordinator is Roy Attwood, based at Bolton Institute. "Assessment is done by written assignments, which more often than not are submitted as e-mail," says Mr Attwood. The flexibility of this arrangement is illustrated by the student who was able to e-mail his assignment from a hotel in the US late at night, just before the deadline.

"The Internet is a very good medium for delivering a course in this field," says Mr Attwood. "All the major microelectronics manufacturers have web sites displaying their products, and such resources can be incorporated into the teaching materials."

Tutor support for individual students is also done largely by e-mail. "If a student has a particular problem, he or she can e-mail the tutor. The tutor can reply personally to the student, or, if it is appropriate - if the problem might apply to all the students for example - the tutor can e-mail everyone on the course."

As well as being a faster method of communicating with students than is the case with more conventional distance learning courses, Mr Attwood says that because of its inherent informality, e-mail has very rapidly helped to foster a good rapport between the participants on the course.

The course itself is designed to enable microelectronics engineers working in industry to keep pace with a technology that is evolving with lightning speed and learn new management and business skills. "We are trying to give a rounded education to cover the business side as well as the technological side," says Mr Attwood.

The MSc, which is modular, is designed to be completed in three years. The third year is devoted entirely to a research or development project, which the students undertake at their place of work under the supervision of both an academic and a work-based tutor.

A few months into the course, Mr Attwood is encouraged. "There is a lot of new ground here for all of us. It is something which is going to grow very rapidly, and so far it is working remarkably well.  The ISDN links were specified for the next part of the course when students will be running design software on the workstations at Bolton remotely from home, but already ISDN has proved a popular choice.  The speed of response is much better than with most modems and call charges are low because the line is only open when data is being transferred."

Lee Hewitt, who works for Argonaut Technologies in Edgware, Middlesex, enrolled on the course to help fill in gaps in his knowledge of both technical and management issues.

After graduating in electronics at the University of East Anglia, where he was sponsored by Racal Defence Radar Electronics, Mr Hewitt worked for a satellite company before joining Argonaut three and a half years ago.

"I feel that this is a good way to help develop my career; I wanted to get more involved in lower-level design and to get more formal training in management, for example."

As for the unconventional way the course is delivered: "It's great. Because I have a full-time job it would be difficult to find the time to do this sort of thing normally. I can get the lecture material whenever I want to, even if I am in a different part of the country or abroad. There is a very fast turnaround of information - if you need something you can get it more or less instantly."

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Contact

Roy Attwood. Tel: 01204 903667; Fax: 01204 370916; e-mail: r.attwood@bolton.ac.uk
Web: http://www.bolton.ac.uk

Commissioned by the Press Office of EPSRC, and published on the web with their permission.  Prepared by Simon Hadlington, a freelance journalist based in York.

Published by the CET Postgraduate Programmes Office, Bolton Institute
Minor amendments  24.3.99  RA