The project creates a cluster of collaborating institutions that combine students into common Computational Sciences and Engineering (CSE) classes and uses cyberlearning technologies to deliver instruction. Students also conduct projects that begin in a summer workshop in Embry-Riddle's Nonlinear Wave Lab and complete them at their home institution using remote lab access. Because few small colleges have the resources to provide undergraduate CSE courses, the project significantly increases student participation in computational science. The project intends to scale-up by establishing a network of clusters. The project advances the learning of CSE by using an R&D process to provide a coherent framework for designing instruction and assessing learning in which the instructional and assessment methods are aligned with a common idea: Model-based learning and reasoning. In addition, the educational infrastructure is improved by establishing a state of the art cyberlearning network that includes a virtual conferencing system; video communication between multiple endpoints such as PCs & iPads; automatic recording and archiving of sessions; and remote lab access in which all operations and measurements in the Nonlinear Wave Lab are remotely operational and streamed online.
