In Autumn '93, the World-Wide Web was first incorporated into the curriculum of ME210 in service of project team formation. The educational goal of the course is to create a shared learning experience in collaborative mechatronic product design and development.
Delivery requires the development of a social framework for team management.
Thus, students are given the experience of working in several ad hoc teams on mini-projects prior to selecting a team for the year. The most visible outcome of this collaboration can be found in the Web pages for ME210, also known to the class as the 210 Web . This Web site contains complete, WAIS searchable student design reports from the past two years, slide presentations, local vendor directories, past student profiles, and the full course syllabus. As an archive of ME210's collective project knowledge, the 210 Web is being actively incorporated into this year's curriculum. Given that Web server authoring and maintenance is still more complex than desktop publishing, current teaching and administrative staff are ill-equipped to deal with Web maintenance.