Cogswell Polytechnical College

Pushing the limits of online learning is making a case for hybrid learning by comparing the high productivity in real-time online team learning versus traditional classroom-based learning, from the perspective of a high-level undergraduate collaborative project series that utilizes both systems. The main focus is on identifying the methods and tools that make individual and team learning more effective in a hybrid system, as opposed to traditional education taking place only on ground or by exclusively using a virtual classroom as a more efficient platform in education. Online learning platforms can form productivity-enhancing opportunities, which supplement but don’t fully replace on-campus meetings. A hybrid approach, which provides both an excellent utilization of resources and a practical, personal learning experience via human interactions, can best support the development of the invaluable soft skills essential in the world of business and entrepreneurship today.

Abstract Engineering industries are calling for graduates that have a breadth of skills including design and analysis skills, teaming skills and “soft skills” (i.e., project management, concept value analysis, communication, cross-disciplinary understanding, etc.) Furthermore, many American industries are implementing “virtual project work teams”, where expert teams work concurrently in several remote locations, sharing design information and data electronically. Northern Arizona University’s College of Engineering and Technology is implementing an innovative, four-year, sequence of classes called the Path to Synthesis. The sophomore and junior courses in the Path to Synthesis program are team-taught industry simulations which use collaborative product design to not only develop design skills, teamwork skills, and soft engineering skills, but to also encourage the use of state of the art design methods and professional software tools. During the Fall 1995 semester, a “virtual team” paradigm was introduced into these two classes. NAU students worked with “expert” teams at other institutions to collaboratively complete a major design project. Students used modern high speed electronic media to communicate design ideas, share electronic data, and complete a project which required expertise from student teams dispersed across a wide geographic area. This paper describes the piloted junior and sophomore level Path to Synthesis courses, and how geographically distributed teams located in Flagstaff, Tempe, and San Francisco collaborated on different aspects of an industrial simulation. This collaborative effort required the use of modern high speed electronic networks for communication, live two way video interaction, and transfer of graphic and CAD data.

Abstract Objective To test the hypothesis that endothelium-derived nitric oxide modulates vasomotor reactivity in equine digital arteries. Design Digital arteries were isolated from adult horses, and their vasodilator properties were examined in an in vitro controlled environment. Animals Five adult horses (1 gelding, 4 mares) without evidence of hoof or vascular disease were studied. Procedure Arterial rings with or without endothelium were exposed to endothelium-dependent vasodilator drugs in the presence or absence of a pharmacologic inhibitor of the enzyme nitric oxide synthase. Results Vasodilator effects of 3 endothelium-dependent vasorelaxant agents were significantly greater in endothelium-intact vessels than in endothelium-denuded vessels. Moreover, a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor reduced vasodilator responses to endothelium-dependent vasodilators in endothelium-intact arteries, but had no discernable effects in endothelium-denuded arteries. Conclusions These findings indicate the presence of endothelium-derived relaxing factor/nitric oxide in blood vessels of horses, and identify vascular endothelium as an endogenous modulator of vasomotor tone in the digital arteries of this species.