Suggested use of Optics4Engineers

The modules developed in this project are freely accessible and downloadable from the Internet.

They may be used for a range of pedagogical activities.

These modules can be used in a number of ways :

- To complement coursework. A teacher lecturing on holography at Master's level may suggest to his or her students that they consult this on-line course for complementary information or for a different approach to a point studied in class. A lecturer may choose to concentrate on other points, or on methodology rather than theory, or develop other aspects of the course when the basic knowledge is available on-line.

- As a self-study resource. The courses consist of lessons and exercises with suggested solutions. Students may use the material to revise (as recommended or on a voluntary basis) or to acquire basic or more complete knowledge from scratch.

- For distance learning. The courses are accessible via Internet from anywhere in the world. They can be integrated into a distance-learning programme and used for coursework.

Presentation of the modules

To cover the essential scientific knowledge in optics for instrumentation, the consortium has planned to produce a course made up of 9 modules and 54 lessons that comprehensively cover the subject.

Each learning object^* has the following pedagogical structure.

The component parts of each course are as follows :

- Lesson This presents the theoretical content of the course as defined in the course objectives. The individual component parts of each lesson have been given the same graphic features thus making them instantly identifiable; a conclusion or a definition all have their own unique style.

Similarly, the symbols employed in the equations have all been normalized and the scientific formulae are expressed in the same coherent way in each learning object.

- Exercices allow students to verify that they have acquired the knowledge presented in the lesson; each exercise section is made up of a series of short calculations or several questions and answers with proposed solutions.

- Case study is fundamental to the optics by instrumentation approach adopted by the consortium in this project. It aims to present a concrete technological application closely related to the theoretical concept developed in the learning object. The case study section may present a concrete case study or the description of some particularly innovative object or material on the market. The case study is not a practical.