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Electronics Department:
Self-Paced Courses
 

 

Today's fast paced lifestyle places many demands on your time.  Whether you are a full time day student or a part time evening student, un-expected things happen.  If you had a lecture scheduled and had to miss it, you fell behind in the class.  As an evening student, missing a single night could put you a week behind the rest of the class
Maybe you have been waiting for a specific Math class and it is only offered at the same time as your Electronic Communications class.  Sometimes course conflicts can happen, but what can you do?

 

Day Session
11:00 am - 4:00 pm
Monday through Friday

Evening Session
5:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Monday through Thursday

Hybrid Self-Paced Courses
605-113 DC/AC I
605-114 DC/AC II
605-120 Electronic Devices I
605-121 Electronic Devices II
605-130 Digital Electronics

Pure Self-Paced Courses
605-109 Fabrication Techniques
605-151 Electronic Communications
605-176 Optoelectronics

Our solution is a set of "Self-Paced Courses" offered during day and evening blocks of time.  These sessions are offered both in the fall and in the spring semesters.  Five of the courses are a Hybrid between  a pure Self-Paced course and a standard Lecture / Lab course.  Students are surveyed, on the first day of class, and a lecture schedule is developed.  Typically the same lecture is four times per week; twice during the day time block and twice during the evening time block.  If needed, a third lecture is offered during the day.  Students taking a Hybrid course attend the lecture of their choice, but are welcome to attend all of the lectures for that course if they so desire. 

The other three courses are pure Self-Paced courses.  Students taking these three courses can set their own schedule, during the day or evening blocks of time.  The only caveat is that the course must be completed by the end of the semester.  Students can finish early if they complete the material before the end of the semester.    


As you can see, the Day Session is a total of 25 hours and the Evening Session is a total of 20 hours.  However students are not expected to be in the classroom for the entire block of time.  For the Hybrid courses, they only need to attend one of the lectures each week and then they set their own schedule for the Computer Based Training (CBT) and Hands-On laboratory.

For the Self-Paced courses, a student schedules themselves  for the appropriate number of hours during the Day or Evening session.

Each course has a predetermined amount of time that each student can expect to spend in the classroom.  If additional time is needed, naturally the student is welcome to stay for as much time as they require. 

 
Estimated time per week Open Lab Homework Open Lab Homework
DC/AC I 4 hours 3 hours Fabrication Techniques 2 hours 1 hour
DC/AC II 4 hours 3 hours Electronic Communications 4 hours 2 hours
Electronic Devices I 6 hours 4 hours Optoelectronics 3 hours 2 hours
Electronic Devices II 6 hours 4 hours      
Digital Electronics 5 hours 4 hours      

The flexibility of the Open-Lab setting gives the student ample opportunity for individual attention.  There is an instructor in the room at all times.  When the instructor is not lecturing, students receive individual attention.  All three of the Electronics instructors spend time in the Open Lab.  This gives the students multiple perspectives on the material that they are covering.   

With this flexible format, a student can complete more than one course per semester.  If you choose all Hybrid courses, you will need to work on them concurrently.  If you choose more than one Self-Paced course, we highly recommend that you complete one Self-Paced course before starting the next one.  Please keep in mind, a course started in one semester must be completed before the end of that semester.  It is very important to work with the instructor to set up a schedule that will allow for enough time to complete the Self-Paced course.

 


Last Revised:   09/14/2007
Webmaster: Patrick Hoppe