[ Home ] [ Up ]

Applied Engineering Technology:
Study Guide

The Study Guide is the student’s “road map” through the course.  The destination is achieving the stated competencies for that course.  The Study Guide for a course is divided into separate units or Learning Plans.  These are like the sections of a trip.   To help navigate to the destination, each Learning Plan contains: an overview section, a checklist of activities, and a series of information sheets and practices activities.

Overview Section

The Learning Plan begins with a brief description of what will be covered in the unit.  As an example for a course on Statistical Process Control (SPC), the description of the first Learning Plan might be:

“This Learning Plan discusses the history and importance of using statistical methods to control manufacturing processes.  It defines SPC and describes the principal tools that are utilized to implement an SPC program.”

Next the competency or major topic of the unit is stated.  This is the skill that the student is trying to master.  It is what the student should be able to do at the end of the unit.  For example:

“Discuss the application of SPC to manufacturing.”

This section also describes the assessment or testing activity that the student will have to complete at the end of the unit.  For example:

“Competence will be demonstrated: (1) by writing a paragraph defining SPC and (2) by constructing examples of a flowchart and a cause-and-effect diagram.”

Checklist of Activities
This section is a list of the actual Learning Activates that the student can do to master the competency.  Here is a partial example for the SPC course:

     ____ 1.      READ the Introduction Sheet for this course.

____ 2.      READ Chapter 3, “What is SPC?” in the text book SPC for the Rest of Us.

____ 3.      REVIEW the Key Points Sheet for Chapter 3.

____ 4.      COMPLETE the Practice Exercises on the SPC tools.

____ 5.      UTILIZE the SPC computer software unit: “SPC Tools”.

____ 6.      REVIEW the Summary Sheet on SPC tools.

Information Sheets and Practice Activities

The information sheets provide the student with additional explanations, summaries and practical tips not included in the text book.  The exercises and practice activities give the student the opportunity to perform the tasks.

In the checklist above, at Step 4 the student would refer to a Practice Activity contained in the Study Guide.  The student would work through practical examples of using the SPC tools.

The student can then check his work by referring to the Feedback section in the back of the Study Guide.  This section provides the answers to the exercise.

The student can also consult with the Instructor for help in completing the activity.

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