The issue of quality is becoming front and centre as online and distance education moves into the mainstream of higher education. Many believe collaborative course development is the best way to design quality online courses. This research uses a case study approach to probe into the collaborative course development process and the implementation of quality standards at a Canadian university. Four cases are presented to discuss the effects of the faculty member/instructional designer relationship on course quality, as well as the issues surrounding the use of quality standards as a development tool. Findings from the study indicate that the extent of collaboration depends on the degree of course development and revision required, the nature of the established relationship between the faculty member and designer, and the level of experience of the faculty member. Recommendations for the effective use of quality standards using collaborative development processes are provided.

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This paper outlines a benchmarking approach for evaluating the diagnostic and prognostic capabilities of the Vehicle Integrated Prognostic Reasoner (VIPR), a vehicle-level reasoner and an architecture which aims to detect, diagnose, and predict adverse events during the flight of an aircraft. A number of diagnostic and prognostic metrics exist, but these standards are defined for well-circumscribed algorithms that apply to small subsystems. For layered reasoners, such as VIPR, the overall performance cannot be evaluated by metrics solely directed toward timely detection and accuracy of estimation of the faults in individual components. Among other factors, the overall vehicle reasoner performance is governed by the effectiveness of the communication schemes between the different monitors and reasoners in the architecture, and the ability to propagate and fuse relevant information to make accurate, consistent, and timely predictions at different levels of the reasoner hierarchy. To address these issues, we outline an extended set of diagnostic and prognostics metrics that can be used to evaluate the performance of layered architecture, and we discuss a software architecture*as well as an evaluation plan for benchmarking VIPR.

Facilities management is addressed and, as a result of research amongst the client and professional sectors, a definition of facilities management is given. Examples of effective facilities management are given. The author maintains that its importance is increasing amongst organisations aiming to remain competitive.

With the advent of three-dimensional stacked integrated-circuit (3D IC), the functionality, performance and power of semiconductor devices has been elevated to a new level. At the same time, the analytical techniques used in the evaluation of 3D IC must also advance in capability. Some new methodologies, based on FPGA products, have been developed to analyze 3D IC failures, all using conventional FA equipment and innovative techniques to achieve a short turn-around time and high success rate. A few case studies will be presented to show the effectiveness of the methodologies.

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This failure analysis case study illustrates the masterful use of a dual-beam FIB to reveal hidden details in a mechanically polished cross-section.