With the rapidly changing remote learning requirements, more educational institutes are looking for cost-effective options for quality online resources to replace textbooks, enhance lectures, and provide learning tools that appeal to the “YouTube” generation.
“While most engineering courses are calculation- or design-intensive, introductory manufacturing courses tend to be primarily information-driven. Covering this content through traditional lecturing often fails to fully engage student interest, motivation, and learning potential.”
Josh Gargac – Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Mount Union.
THORS eLearning Solutions meets these challenges by providing:
- Interactive, cloud-based learning solutions for manufacturing industry employees and students.
- Industry-specific content that explains different manufacturing processes and materials with a workflow that mirrors real manufacturing methods.
- Courses that are developed by combining experiential industry knowledge with theoretical insight and are presented in a user-friendly format complete with graphics, animations, and interactives.
Our courses are recognized and valued by our customers, including fortune 500 companies such as General Motors, Ford Motor Company, FCA, Mercedes Benz, Caterpillar Inc., Cummins, Navistar, Rolls Royce, as well as, other top companies and educational institutions worldwide.
We have found that many professors at various institutions are addressing the following challenges with success using THORS Solutions:
Reducing the cost of textbooks:
THORS courses are extremely complementary to the courses taught in the universities and can provide a cost-effective alternative to costly textbooks.
“It certainly makes it easier to teach manufacturing science, it\’s impossible to be an expert in every type of manufacturing. The best part about THORS is you get content from vetted industry experts in a broad area of subjects including castings, metal forming and cutting, forging, and polymer work.”
Josh Gargac – Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Mount Union.
Enhancing Lectures:
When THORS assignments are giving before a lecture, students are prepared with a baseline comprehension of terminology, understanding, and application of various manufacturing processes and products.
“I would tell my colleagues that THORS is a great enhancement of the material they’re already covering. And with THORS, students are able to see the products and the processes behind them. I would highly recommend THORS to anybody who is looking for materials that are of high quality on these topics. From a technical standpoint, they are excellent and provide instruction to the students that I don’t have time to create. The animations are excellent, and onboarding exercises are integrated into the modules as you go. There is just no way you can create it yourself. I want to give the students an almost hands-on experience, even in an online environment, and it is great we can now do that with THORS. I think the students really appreciate that.”
Michael Robinson – Manufacturing & STEM Assistant Professor, Butler County Community College.
Increasing Lab Time (Flipping the classroom):
THORS allows individuals to learn manufacturing fundamentals in self-paced online assignment providing for more interactive lectures and increased time for application of the subject matter
“THORS allowed for a flipped classroom where the content was delivered to the students outside the classroom, scheduled class meetings could be spent on additional hands-on activities. This allowed four weeks of lecture to be replaced with four fabrication lab exercises.”
Josh Gargac – Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Mount Union
Bring Manufacturing Processes to Life:
The manufacturing process is difficult at best to describe in a 2D manner. Many logistical issues also prevent the availability of in-person plant tours and even in those cases much of what is viewed in not easily explained. With the use of THORS crossed sectioned animations, videos, and interactives, in many cases, the learner can gain a better understanding of the process than they would standing in front of a machine.
“For me, it brings to my students real-world examples of the types of training that takes place with well done and realistic videos and/or simulations with culminates in learning and then a THORS certificate. It just complements the way students like to learn today.”
Rob Speckert – Professor Department of Engineering Technology, Miami University
Using Competency-Based Embedded Preexisting Tests and Quizzes:
Finding time to locate meaningful related content and then creating the associated worksheets, tests and quizzes can be very difficult and time-consuming.
“THORS has competency-based examinations, pretests and post examinations included within each course. As an instructor, it saves me considerable time. Not that I mind giving tests, but it’s superior because its integrated with the material and comes up at the right time within the material. It really makes it easy for the students to learn. That is a really big plus for me. It\’s not just a bunch of videos – it has competency-based activity going on throughout it which I think is a real plus.”
Michael Robinson – Manufacturing & STEM Assistant Professor, Butler County Community College.
Finding High Quality, In-depth Information that is Used and Recognized in Industry:
Students receive a THORS certificate upon completing each course. These certificates are valued by our customers worldwide.
“First, I think THORS has credibility. I promote it before I have my students take the THORS courses and explain how THORS came about and how it serves industry and list some of the major THORS clients, like GM, to my students. I let them know this is the type of learning they use an industry. I like how things flow in each module the details in the industry-based content that it presents.”
Rob Speckert – Professor Department of Engineering Technology, Miami University
Planning for the Further Impact of COVID-19 and Remote Teaching Strategies:
With today’s everchanging environment educators need to develop plans for either distance learning, face to face learning or some mixture of both.
“Thank God we had THORS in the spring when we had to switch quickly over to remote instruction. There’s no way you can develop that quality of material in such a short amount of time. You have to have quality material available and ready to go when remote learning is mandated. It has to be “in the can” and ready to deploy. The THORS program meets that challenge well.
When it comes to remote instruction, students don’t want to sit there and just read. They like the interaction and that’s what I like about THORS. It’s not a replacement for face-to-face instruction, but it’s an enhancement beyond having students just reading PowerPoint slides or watching videos.”
Michael Robinson – Manufacturing & STEM Assistant Professor, Butler County Community College
We are interested in speaking with you! See how THORS can aid with your company or learning institution in meeting your future training needs.
