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Title:
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Spreadsheets: the ideal tool for distance learning in Engineering education |
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Author:
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Kanyarusoke, K.E.; Uziak, J. |
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Abstract:
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Formal Engineering Education has traditionally been delivered using the low
technology—high touch lecturing method, in which the lecturer and student meet face to face.
Distance education in this field has been quite slow to develop primarily because of difficulty
in delivery of practical based instructions and problems on integrity of assessments.
Developments in information technology and the increased demand for further education by
people already in employment have however changed this even in developing countries. It puts
extra demand on Lecturers to guide distance learners in handling numerical computations so
prevalent in Engineering. At the campuses, computer based methods are available in the high
touch—high tech lecture method. High level and efficient computer software is used to help
the student to simulate and solve some problems. However, such software is expensive—and
therefore—not readily available to the distant learner. Spreadsheets on the other hand are
almost universal on today’s computers and they bridge the gap between hand calculations and
high level programme computations. This paper therefore makes a case for the use of
spreadsheets in Distance Engineering Education. An example in Spring Design, Selection and
Adaptation is used to illustrate the simplification and other advantages of their use by
practicing distance learners. |
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URI:
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http://hdl.handle.net/10311/603
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Date:
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2009 |
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Publisher:
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Wiley Periodicals Inc. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0542 |
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xmlui.dri2xhtml.METS-1.0.item-link:
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http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cae.20235/pdf
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xmlui.dri2xhtml.METS-1.0.item-type:
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Published Article |