Garden City: Adapting Sooner City at Rowan University

Rowan University, Glassboro NJ

Investigators

Abstract

Engineering - Civil (54) The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rowan University is adapting Sooner City for use in its undergraduate program. Sooner City, developed at the University of Oklahoma, is a digital city that students use to complete design-oriented assignments. It provides an integrated four-year design project that unifies the curriculum, allowing material learned in earlier courses to carry forward and to be built upon. This is in contrast to the "traditional" paradigm in which courses often stand as independent entities. The goal of the current effort is to adapt Sooner City at Rowan University and to develop effective adaptation methods that will assist other institutions wishing to do the same. The objectives are to: 1) Implement Sooner City at Rowan University, under the name "Garden City"; 2) Develop a computer-based adaptation wizard for use by other institutions; 3) Add design elements not already developed by OU; 4) Evaluate results both to improve Sooner and Garden Cities and to ensure that future adaptation of Sooner City will be as efficient and effective as possible; and 5) Disseminate the results to encourage wide adaptation of Sooner City.