Scope and focus in engineering design research-distance learning experience at masters level compared with ICED'99 interests

摘要

Much has been published on the subject of distance learning and the term e-learning has entered the vocabulary as irrevocably as e-commerce. Many universities aspire to increasing their student populations at undergraduate level through distance learning, and proposals are underway for e-Universities. This paper describes experience at the UK's Open University (OU) MSc course in manufacturing: management and technology (research module), from the perspectives of its relationship with current research in engineering design, exemplified by ICED 99 interests. The scope and focus of MSc dissertations over a period of seven years were examined, as being representative of the many concerns of manufacturing companies, since almost all students were industrially based. Results were then compared with the scope and focus of papers accepted by ICED 99, as being representative of researchers' perceptions of the design-related concerns of manufacturing companies. A close correlation of concerns was identified in areas of process design and enabling technologies, though otherwise there were notable mismatches. Little interest was shown by manufacturing industry in meta-design and design processes. ICED researchers showed little interest in major areas of organisational technology that obsess many MSc candidates and their companies.