General Engineering Introduction/Tutorials

Actual tutorials exist!

Everyday, simple things, common sense things to one person are mysterious to another. Someone that can not name a screw driver is going to be mystified by all the tips. Playing with PID software is a mystery to those with out a controls course. Good tutorials require writing skills. Starting a tutorial does not.

Project Scaffolding

The goal of project scaffolding is to get up to speed as quickly as possible in order to be productive pushing a project forward. Without scaffolding, most students will spend all their time learning about a project rather than doing a project.

Most freshman and sophomore engineering classes are not about scaffolding. The goal is not teach content, but to teach things like design, simulation and testing. Content is there only to serve the design, simulation and testing exercises. So don't think that you are being asked to write a text book.

When you don't know how

If you don't know how to do something, you should expect an excellent tutorial to exist on how to do it. If the tutorial doesn't exist, then it is the world's problem not yours. And further, you have the opportunity to improve the world by creating/editing the tutorial.

Example

Suppose you know how to hole through solder, but don't know anything about surface mount soldering. What is going to be more valuable?

• a random youtube video on the subject
• or a video showing how to use the equipment your school has accumulated

Your goal is to create a tutorial inspired by the random youtube videos. If one has already been created, your goal is to improve the tutorial or race through it.

Excellent Tutorial

An excellent tutorial looks like a tree. You start scanning at the roots and work your way up to a leaf. An excellent tutorial means you move up the familiar trunk into familiar branches until you find something new. You slow down and skim to a leaf. Perhaps the leaf is not where you wanted to go. You back track to the familiar, then climb towards another leaf. You continue identifying what you know you don't want to know until you have found what you want to learn. Then retrace your steps between the familiar and the destination leaf. Edit the tutorial using wiki mark tools as you work through the tutorial ... not afterwards.

Wikiversity Tutorials

Tutorials are articles in wikiversity. Wikibooks contains articles grouped into books. The General Engineering Tutorials are categorized on wikiversity. The best practice way to create tutorials is documented on wikiversity.

Not Text Books

Don't believe that text books have chapters that are logically related. Text books are often a survey of topics held together by a very thin logical thread that orders the sequence. Tutorials should not be treated this way.

Treat text books as a survey of topics just like search results. Jump to what seems relevant and then begin reading. Write down words you don't understand. Begin sorting and categorizing the words as if they are clues to a mystery. Build links to more detailed explanations.

Reuse

Tutorials are about science, math or technology. Tools and their use are part of technology. The same math is used in a variety of disciplines just like tools are used in a variety of different ways. The engineering project is what sets the context of tutorial use and reuse. Expect tutorial pictures to be reused and branch from one to other in a many to many relationship rather than a hierarchical tree pattern. Create main article page of steps and then link to the steps. Ideally someone else can create a main article page and include other steps or put the steps in a different, skip the steps, etc. The same steps become building blocks of other tutorials.

Capturing Learning Curve

Not everyone has the same frustrations. Not everyone gets stuck in the same place. It is amazing how different people are. Don't think because you don't get it you are stupid. The world is stupid and prejudiced for not anticipating your frustration. Fix the world. Improve the world. Capture your frustration before you forget it by immediately modifying the tutorial.

Don't wait for the perfection of the world or yourself before attempting engineering.

Organizing Personal Notes

Engineering notebooks are 90% wrong because they document where the engineer gets stuck. Reading engineering notebooks is totally confusing. Someone else's notebook is the wrong place to look for a tutorial.

But engineering notebooks, if written in while doing, will contain all the details necessary to create a tutorial. The tutorial steps are probably not in order. The details are probably wrong on 90% of the pages. The fruit, the leaves, are probably in one sentence on one page of the notebook. Organizing this is the goal of a tutorial.

Don't make the mistake of trying to make your notebook look like a tutorial.

Individual wikiversity pages contain a reflection or extension of the notebook chaos. Information is better ordered chronologically like the notebook with an extension of pictures and links. A tutorial on the other hand is a list of steps or starting points.

Creating a Place Holder

The exact details of the tutorial are important. It is important to create the best tutorial you can. But the tutorial details are not the most important thing.

Most wiki article detail comes from one person. Others come along and make minor edits. The article may sit for 5 years before someone else looks at it. And most likely they are going to link to it.

Make history. Be the first author. Create a place holder for this tutorial by accurately describing the tutorials goals and giving it a relevant wikiversity article name. Don't worry if it is not perfect. Others will judge this and fix detail in the future.

A tutorial/article takes up space on a wiki. It is linked to. It's usage is charted. Individuals not crowds view it. Start the tradition of adding value where ever you go .. if you can. Both create the original and edit other people's work.