THE IMPACT OF A UBIQUITOUS MOBILE COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT ON DESIGN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Providing students with a ubiquitous mobile computing environment is a key component of UOIT’s teaching and learning strategy which offered a unique opportunity to build its programs from the ground-up with a laptop program at its centre. While ensuring that its use was considered in every aspect of curriculum development, five undergraduate engineering programs curricula have been developed at the University’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science (FEAS) with a laptop-supported mobile computing environment at its heart. The laptops are equipped with a suite of program specific software. The focus of this paper is on the pedagogical benefits that have been achieved in design engineering education at FEAS as a result of the students’ ubiquitous access to the latest CAD/CAM/CAE and productivity tools. The laptop program enables improved delivery of design engineering training along with the opportunity of implementing novel teaching strategies.