Ac 2009-2107: Introengineering.org: a Structured Wiki Community for Instructors of First-year Engineering Courses

Assembling content for a broad-based, first-year engineering course poses unique challenges. In order to be successful, first-year instructors must typically tailor material to accommodate the background and interests of their students, as well as to prepare students for the specific majors available in their institution. While a traditional textbook can provide both a framework and validated content for a first-year engineering course, it is also highly unlikely that any single, conventionally published book could fully meet the needs of instructors across a broad range of schools. To address this problem, this paper describes an open, online wiki-based community where instructors of first-year engineering courses can share materials. The system was developed through collaboration between a textbook author, a traditional publishing house, and a wiki specialist. The paper describes the organization and usage of the system, as well as addresses the publisher’s perspective on this new technology in light of their changing business model.