MICROCOMPUTER SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS REPORT

Abstract

Instructional computing is undergoing dramatic change in the Department of Agricultural Engineering at Cornell . In the past two years, nearly all of the instructional computing has been shifted to microcomputers, including the four formal courses in computing (AE 102, AE 151, AE 152, and AE 304) taught by the department . (See Cooke, J . R. , "Microcomputers in American Higher Education", ASAE Paper No . 84-5048, presented June 1984 at Knoxville, TN . ) Nearly all of the remaining courses include some component of microcomputer usage - either as an explicit module provided to the student or as a general computational resource . This shift has been facilitated by the presence of the CALS Microcomputer Facility located in Riley-Robb Hall which includes three clusters of 16 microcomputers each (IBM PC/XT, Macintosh and Apple II), and by more than a dozen micros in faculty offices of which half were provided by Project Ezra . The software development effort for this "micro-revolution" has been supported actively by the entire faculty . This project appears to be unique with respect to its comprehensive nature.