eCAD: a knowledge-based course engineering system

Colleges and universities have increasingly migrated towards utilizing the World Wide Web to convey at least a part and, in many cases, their entire curricular offering. Despite this trend, there is inadequate support for the professors responsible for restructuring the courses they have refined over a career in the classroom for delivery via the Web. Teachers who are expert in their subject area and masters of their craft when in a classroom find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to relearn how to teach in a new environment with little or no support. The process of planning and developing a course for delivery in an online environment is, in many significant aspects, analogous to the processes required to develop a software system. Both situations require the developer to manage resources through a series of steps with the goal of designing a product that effectively utilizes the computer to solve a problem. The procedures and tools used in software engineering to manage software system development, therefore, offer promise for developing online courses. Computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools are of special interest by virtue of the support afforded the development process through computerization. This paper offers an architectural overview of a knowledge-based, course engineering system: eCAD (electronic Course Analysis & Design). The requirements for the system, the manner in which those criteria were developed and validated, and system design are detailed. A working prototype is also presented.