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CUE 2006

CAETE staff member Andrew Bartlett copies courses onto CDs for distance-learning students.

Center for Advanced Engineering and Technology Education (CAETE): Expanding Services to Meet Needs Here and Abroad

As part of its mission to extend the college's graduate engineering and technical education to working professionals and industry via distance education, CAETE is reaching out to help make learning even more convenient and accessible, both in the U.S. and abroad.

During the last academic year, CAETE conducted a focus group comprised of representatives from a number of local high-tech companies. The focus group helped us to identify specific engineering and technology courses needed by these companies, how to best deliver these courses, what factors most influenced their educational and training purchases, and the types of education and training these companies already offer to their own employees. CAETE is now working to establish new courses and certificate programs targeted to these professional engineers.

CAETE also is working on the next generation of products and services to better serve the needs of distance students. Two promising possibilities are making course lectures and other educational materials accessible via Apple's iTunes software (podcasting) and upgrading our course capturing system to allow synchronous online delivery.

In addition, CAETE is assisting the Engineering for Developing Communities program on two projects to bring engineering education to developing countries. The Afghanistan project involves partnering with the University of Kabul to provide graduate courses in engineering and sustainable development via distance learning to promising students there. The second project uses the existing infrastructure of Peruvian Internet cafés to help local organizations provide access to basic education in rural and developing regions.