Overview

Welcome to a truly different graduate program: Clemson University’s Master of Engineering in Industrial Engineering with a concentration in Capital Projects Supply Chain and Logistics. It’s a mouthful! So, maybe it’s best thought of as an MBA for engineers. Instead of taking a research path, students aim to streamline efficiencies in the real world, making the production and transport of products all over the globe faster and less expensive.

The program is part of the Center for Economic Excellence in Supply Chain and was conceived as a partnership with Fluor, a Fortune 500 engineering and project management company. It made big news because of its $4 million endowment, with the state of South Carolina matching Fluor’s donation of $2 million. For Clemson, this was an opportunity to build a revenue-generating degree program and use exciting new technology to deliver it.

Ready for Prime-Time

For Dr. Will Ferrell, Clemson's program chair, a web-based tool that incorporated video was an absolute requirement. Clemson's Customer Relations and Learning Technologies (CRLT), along with administrative staff and faculty, selected the Echo360 lecture capture system because it fit the bill, and the product development path and goals were in sync with the university’s ambitions for the program. Ferrell states, "If there had not been a product like this, I wouldn’t have gone down this road." Using a matrix of needs, several features stood out: multiple file formats, web delivery, Blackboard integration, automated publishing, editing and video-on-demand. The pricing structure also held strong appeal.

The project became reality in fall 2008, with the first cohort of 41 students moving together through the first class. Lectures are recorded and posted for download in a choice of formats – audio only, video, and "rich media" slides – to computers, iPods, phones and MP3 devices. Students then experience the lecture in the format that’s best for them, whether they’re on a flight to Beijing or at their desk at home.

What Do Students Think?

The program draws from big names in supply chain and logistics besides Fluor, including CH2M HILL, Foster Wheeler, Hatch Engineering and UPS. Students live in every time zone – the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East – and travel for business so often that being able to “attend” lectures from wherever they are is critical. They move frequently and travel from project to project, spending countless hours on airplanes. Instead of being “lost” time, this travel time is now highly productive because of the program’s structure. A key requirement from the beginning was high-quality, reliable web delivery to maintain the integrity of the lectures, and with Echo360, students get fast, clear, superior quality downloads.

Dr. Anand K. Gramopadhye, Clemson's professor and chair of Industrial Engineering is pleased with student feedback. "Echo360 has enabled the Department of Industrial Engineering to deliver a high quality online master's program in Capital Supply Chain and Logistics to working professionals. "Ferrell concurs, "It’s the right type of thing for our students, professional working people," and goes on to say, "This is the right product to help us make this degree work."

Instructor Feedback

Dr. Mary Beth Kurz, a popular engineering instructor, is a true champion of lecture capture technology. One of Clemson's first users, Kurz records her classes whenever she wants, and then creates and posts them to Blackboard and the web. Her comments are overwhelmingly positive. "The best thing about Echo360," says Kurz, "is being able to use the Symposium or being able to go to Excel or a website and have all that captured as well. It's not just limited to the PowerPoint." She loves the flexibility and consistently makes adjustments to her pace and teaching methods based on feedback from her students.

Building the Program

So far, Echo360's lecture capture has received excellent feedback from students and been fairly easy for instructors to understand and implement.  Clemson University is marketing the master’s program in the business community, taking sample lectures to big companies to establish credibility. Outside the engineering department, the university is looking at distance learning programs and supporting live classes with lecture capture segments. As other university departments take it on, they will be able to benefit from other instructors' experience with timing, pacing and content updates. The team is also reaping a big benefit of lecture capture as it prepares for the second cohort – building upon existing curriculum instead of starting from scratch.

Ultimately, Clemson wants to reach the people who need this education, and they’re located all over the country and the world. This method of teaching students accomplishes that, while extending the Clemson presence outside the local community and generating important revenue for the school.