Faculty Spotlight: Dr. John Ekerdt
May 2006
Using the Web for information exchange is becoming a standard in classrooms of Dr. John Ekerdt of CHE. When John came to UT in 1979 he lectured to his students and while he still lectures, he is now able to use multimedia (via the classroom podiums) to enhance his teaching. He has found that today’s students have different expectations than those of the past. These students need to be motivated and they want to know how they are going to use what they are learning. Gone are the days of his youth when he did things just because he was told to do it. Even though he may hear his dad saying, “Just be tough,” John is now using the Web and other visual resources to help his students be engaged and to learn. John notes that “Students today are used to getting information from multiple sources (and at times simultaneously) and the multimedia podia allows one to move quickly between tools and sources.”
In the mid 90’s, John received Academic Development Funds from the College to create online programs for his students. He approached this idea from a student perspective and a realization that fewer than 10% of the students were willing to write computer programs to solve realistic and challenging problems. Students would simply skip the assignment and the learning benefit of the assignment was lost to most students. He hired an undergraduate student who did a fine job of converting simulations he developed for a Web-based approach to running the simulations and exploring the relevant concepts. However, as the years passed, compatibility issues of the programs and the software versions arose. John is a believer in outsourcing to, in his words “the experts,” and he has come to the FIC to get the expertise he needs. He wants to make sure that the Web-based resources he needs are designed for future improvements and that the development process is well-documented to build a corporate memory.
When he was Chair of CHE, he called in the FIC to redo CHE’s Website. “There is no way I can reorganize a Website.” He realizes that particular skills are needed to do these types of endeavors and he appreciated the FIC providing models and mockups of Websites before the actual development began. This is not to say that John lacks computer expertise, for he is savvy. He builds simulations and programs for his students. He doesn’t want these products to become “static” and with the FIC’s help he is keeping these useful programs operational.
John believes his students are benefiting from the Web resources. Although he doesn’t actually poll them, he knows they go to these sites because of the types of questions they are able to ask. Take a look at the site that Dr. Ekerdt provides for his students:
http://www.engr.utexas.edu/che/reactor/ .