The Senior Design class lends itself well to on-line course management because there is no syllabus or lectures. We orchestrated the ideas together, and he implemented them. While the full class meets only three times a semester, students and instructors have access to PACE services at any time and from anywhere in the world with access to the Web.
Students can even order parts from their dorm rooms.
The major functions of PACE are discussion, project management, archiving, and industrial partnership. PACE is used initially as a communication forum for students and faculty to exchange ideas. By 10 days into the semester, students have chosen their projects and continue using the system to order parts, schedule meetings, and publish their proposals, presentations, and final reports. During presentations week, PACE facilitates scheduling about 130 meetings, each involving eight to 10 different people. Project documentation can be archived for several years, encouraging students to seek out ideas in the literature, just as professional engineers do.