Teamed courses: two case studies

One of the major struggles in launching a new degree option is having a critical mass of students to fill new courses. Five courses have been created for the new degree of Computer Integrated Manufacturing Technology Electronics Manufacturing Option offered by the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology, USA. Although industry is very interested in these courses, enrollment in the courses has been a real concern. Two of the new Electronics Manufacturing II (EET M200) and Techniques for Electronics Manufacturing (IET 240) have been teamed with existing courses to ease the enrollment concerns. Lectures are combined for the teamed courses, thus solving the enrollment concerns. Each course has separate laboratories and projects are coordinated so that students in different courses have very different experiences. This ensures that students sitting in the same lecture can learn content different enough to warrant unique course numbers.