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Editor's Note: John Blyler is now Editor in Chief of Chip Design Magazine

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John Blyler is a lot of fun to talk to, which shouldn't surprise anybody considering he's an engineer, an editor, and a professor. Raise your hand if you can think of any other three professions, which combined, tend to draw in people who are more willing and able to observe and modify the world for the better. At the risk of overstating - engineers, editors, and professors tend to see the world as a place that can be made better and Blyler fits right in that mold.

John lives in Oregon, where above and beyond his full-time work as Senior Technology Editor for Penton's Wireless Systems Design magazine and Executive Editor of the WSD Update Newsletter (on-line), he is on the faculty at Portland State University.

When John transited over to the editorial world some years back, he brought 20 years' experience as a systems engineer and manager with him. John brought those same years of experience to the classroom as an engineering professor at Idaho State University and Oregon State University, prior to his current appointment at Portland State University.

Which bring us up to our conversation last Friday, September 3rd. John was sitting in his office in Hillsboro, Oregon, when we spoke. Our discussion centered on his current involvement with the on-line Master's program in Systems Engineering currently offered by Portland State University's College of Engineering & Computer Science. I was interested in talking to John about the program because of the larger implications it has on the future of engineering education.

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John: "After 20 years in engineering, I decided it was time to do something else, so I spent a couple of years teaching at Idaho State University. I really felt good about university life and academia, but didn't want to do it full time. At PSU [Portland State University], the programs are more geared towards working engineers - like the California State Schools - and it was important to PSU that I had been out in industry for a long time and had a strong background in the systems area."

John: "PSU introduced the first on-line degree in Oregon. The program started in the fall of 1999, and it's pretty unique. For the start, we knew we were going to offer an all on-line program that would lead to an advanced degree in systems engineering. I worked closely with the Director of the Systems Engineering Program, Dr. Herman Migliore, to help develop the program. I was paid to develop 3 courses for the program, 2 from scratch, and one that the NSA asked me to develop as an intensive 5-day course."

"We've got some great faculty in the program, and students from all over the country and the world. It's been very interesting. Of course, as with all on-line projects, we've had our share of challenges. We use WebCT, which is an environment where students can come in and look at the assignments. The course materials are all on-line of course, as are the lectures."

"The Canadian military has also been very interested in our courses. They've sent folks down here to study at PSU even though all these courses are on-line. Sometimes local business offer internships for our students as well, and we've got lots of students from local high-tech companies like Philips and Intel."

John: "When my kids were young enough, I could attend to my teaching after they went to bed at night, posting messages, responding to e-mails, etc. It's a little more difficult now that they're older."

"The trick to doing these on-line courses is to have everything done before you start. Most of the teaching materials are on-line, and I leave them open on the site for the whole term. I have tried using chat rooms, but you can only handle about 5 people per chat room before there's just too many people in the conversation. So usually, communication is through discussion threads. I post some questions, which must be answered as part of their grade. By and large that's the main vehicle [for feedback from the students]."

"For my course on hardware/software interfaces, I use my book - 'What's Size Got To Do With It: Understanding Computer Systems' - but if the students are [diligent enough], they don't even have to buy the book because all of the material is on-line. The material in my course related to issues in the EDA world are not even in a book - they are only available on the course website. Of course, all of my exams are on-line."

John: "There's no mandatory on-campus meetings, although when we first started almost every student wanted one. But Herm and I pushed back and said this was a new era in the University - the whole purpose of the program was to be completely on-line, so the sooner the students got used to it the better. Once they understood, they knew it wasn’t - 'I don't like you' - from the professors as much as - 'I'm busy and you're busy too.'"

"Every once in a while, folks will want to chat. I give out my number occasionally, but for the most part I respond to e-mails and threaded discussions. I try to respond quickly, so there's never a feeling that I'm just a robot on this end. Every once in a while, a group of students will want to get together and we'll pick a place to do that in the evening. The groups can be diverse, so they often have conflicting schedules which makes this difficult."

"We've had students from as far away as Australia or Connecticut. Those people really can't make it for a get together, although we did have one student from Chicago who was really excellent. When he came out to visit, we had a party for him at a micro-brewery."

"Every once in a while graduates will arrive on campus to walk through graduation when they finish the program. We've had 8 or 10 students who have actually gotten their masters. Since those people were all working, it took them 3 years or more to finish."

John: "In this WebCT thing, you can post a website that includes a photo. That kind of helps because sometimes when we do meet, it's kind of shocking. People will say, 'Oh my! I had no idea you looked like that.' [Laughing] - I often feel the same way about them."

John: "The enrollment varies. My biggest class so far was 18 students, but classes can vary from 6 to 18 students. There's been more students in recent years with the slow down in the economy. We also find that some people just want a specific class, or they'll take a certificate in a specific area rather than do the entire advanced degree."

John: "I think many people miss the interactivity of having students together in a class room - the human dynamics of it. I certainly think that's what you need for an undergraduate education, and you can't get that on-line."

"However we've found at the graduate level that many students either have to fit their courses in and around their home life, their office, their work commitments, and traffic, etc., because if they couldn't do their advanced degree this way, they wouldn't do it at all."

"I haven't done a very scientific survey, but I'd say that most of our students are in their early 30's, through to some guys in their mid 40's. Most have a degree in engineering and have been out working for a number of years."

"So it turns out that teaching an on-line asynchronous course works particularly well for working folks who can log in at lunch or after work to progress in their classes. The fact if the matter is, this is a program that's aimed at the working stiff."

"In fact, it seems that each semester I have several students who need to travel on business during finals week. In that case, I give them the exam and they finish it when they get back - we can offer a huge amount of flexibility, which is something of value for working engineers."

"Does anybody cheat? The marginal ones may always be looking for excuses, but good students don't try to work the system. Cheating only lowers the curve and [compromises] good grades."

"An on-line degree program is a good environment for someone who's a self starter and very comfortable on the Internet. We even have two people working on their Ph.D. through this program - they're working in conjunction with the Systems and Science departments."

"From the teacher's side of things - this is the only way I could been involved as well. If I wasn't able to [conduct classes from my home office], I would have had to go downtown during rush hour to teach evening classes at PSU in Portland - about 30 miles each way."

John: "There's nothing that we're offering on-line that couldn't be had from textbooks or magazines, so we don't really have that as a concern at the graduate level. I think those problems that are more [relevant] to undergraduate education, especially where people have visa problems coming to study here in person."

"Once enrolled, you've got to finish up the advanced degree within 7 years of starting, or possibly have to re-take certain courses."

John: "I know that USC has one in Systems Engineering and I'm guessing there are probably 7 or 8 other universities who offer on-line degrees in systems engineering. [Clearly], students who study with us are comfortable with the computer and are aware of what's out there on the Internet."

John: "As recently as 5 years ago, when these on-line degree programs first appeared, the name brand schools said they didn’t think this was going to be an important movement, but they were wrong. Because although there's still a caste system among universities, a number of studies are showing that there's a lot of potential with on-line education."

"Motorola did a study, for instance, that concluded that on-line education would level the playing field between the name schools and the lesser known universities. Things are reaching the point now where as an on-line student, you're starting to have access to instructors from whatever university you want. The Internet is beginning to level the 2-caste system in engineering education."

"It's a brave new world in on-line education, and we've all got to grow and change as things evolve."

John: "You mean a computer?" [Laughing]

"Actually, I really like being involved in this program and want to see it continue. Right now, with budget cutbacks, the program's operating on a shoestring, but we definitely pay our own way. For big courses, sometimes instructors get help grading homework, but like everywhere in Oregon, everyone's salary on the faculty has gone down a bit. I'm still very interesting in doing this program, however, because it's something I believe in and something that I helped put together."

"That's kind of my version of the apple for the teacher."

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September 9, 2004

Peggy Aycinena owns and operates EDA Confidential. She can be reached at peggy@aycinena.com

Copyright (c) 2004, Peggy Aycinena. All rights reserved.