PHYSICS EDUCATION COURSE IN VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY PROJECT AT KYUSHU INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

The Virtual University (VU) project was conducted by Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT) as a joint research and development effort with the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), National Institute of Multimedia Education (NIME), and Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) from 1999 to 2001. The role of KIT in this project was the production of educational materials for undergraduate science and engineering. The subjects are as follows: a) Physics; b) Introduction to LSI; c) Information Technology. The VU physics course includes introductory mechanics and electromagnetism. For the mechanics section, a digital textbook was prepared using Mathematica with the contents transcribed from the recently published book, “Mechanics Exercises with Mathematica” (1999, Baifukan Co. Ltd., Tokyo). Plus, significant emphasis is placed on the student conducting physics exercises using a computer. For the electromagnetism section, special attention was paid to providing a unified theory for application to practical problems involving various engineering situations. Accordingly, the current report gives an overview of the process used to develop the VU physics program, along with insights on the significance of a VU based on computers and communication networks as a new education system.