Developing accessible engineering courseware

The Courseware Development Studio is part of the NSF Synthesis Coalition and has been authoring engineering courseware since 1990. One primary goal of the Coalition has been the creation of a nationally accessible database of academic courseware (NEEDS). A further mission of the Studio is to provide courseware authors with examples of assessable quality courseware. While the courseware is being developed, the type of delivery system that will be used to present the material in a classroom must be decided. Some of the Studio's experiences and difficulties using a dedicated multimedia classroom are detailed. This setup is compared with a portable display system that can be used in a conventional classroom. The Internet is becoming a valuable resource and an integral part of today's educational environment. Setup procedures that the studio had to follow to become connected to the World Wide Web are outlined. In addition, instructions on how to access the NEEDS database via the WWW are given. Suggestions on how to avoid problems between high-powered authoring tools and database accessibility by potential users are explored. In order to maintain a high degree of quality on the database some guidelines are outlined for evaluating courseware. Courseware evaluation is intended to guarantee high standards in learning materials, and to serve as a reference for authors during the development phase.