PE - Distance Education

[Rich2001]

NCEES in a recent article in Licensure Exchange

http://ncees.org/licensure/licensur.../le_2005_04.pdf

proposed a new scheme for engineers to obtain their Professional Engineering License. In short, a graduate engineer (Bachelor degree from an TAC/ABET accredited school) would be require to obtain 30 credit hours of additional engineering education, along with passing both the FE & PPE exams and 4 years of experience.

When this plan is implemented, though it will be several years, what impact do you think it will have on the Distance Education Market?

Given the fact that more engineers and computer scientist will need to take courses, what innovations to delivery techniques are on the horizon?

What innovations to delivery techniques would you like to see?

 

[PSE]

The scheme is a bit different and it will be interesting to see if it draws Industrial Exempts (of which I am one), into the "fold". I did not see enough information in the article to decide whether or not I would consider it "useful" to my career.

As to the effect on Distance Education, I would think the largest impact would be determining the acceptability of the curriculum or information and the ability to provide a record of (successful?) participation. I have attended a few web based seminars and though I mostly like the format and convenience (timeliness of interaction can still be problematic for questions etc.), I could just as easily simply logged in and walked away to do something else. Would it still count towards continued education at that point?

The boards will certainly have their work cut out for them in further defining what is "acceptable" from a continuing education standpoint.

Regards,

 

[waskillywabbit]

I see too many loopholes in distance education if it is setup similar to most programs that I am aware of for other vocations. Requiring more is not always better, case in point, Bush's "No Child Left Behind", will cause a mass exodus of more than "higly qualified" teachers in 2006 when it goes into effect, as they won't go to the inconvenience/trouble/expense of going back to school if they are w/in several years of retirement.

30 extra hours of schooling for me now would be almost an impossibility if I decided to go the FE/PE route.

It will be interesting to see how this progresses...

Brian
Pressure Vessels and Autoclave Systems

http://www.mcabeeconstruction.com

The above comments/opinions are solely my own and not those of McAbee Construction.