A Text for engineering education in the 21st century 1. Objectives and overview

Engineering education research continues to demonstrate that a growing variety of teaching methods are more effective than the time-honored lecture format. In addition, the engineering education literature provides a wealth of examples of the implementation of these more effective methods, along with data establishing their efficacy. Nonetheless, the standard lecture format remains in widespread use. This might be remedied by replacing the conventional textbook with a TExT (Toolkit for Exceptional Teaching) that integrates a comprehensive set of teaching tools with the content normally found in a textbook. A prototype TExT is being developed so that this hypothesis can be tested. The objectives of the TExT are enumerated, its components are identified, and their intended use is described in this overview of its on-going development. The use of the prototype TExT, at its current level of development, in teaching a senior-level undergraduate engineering course is also described.