Experimental Centric Pedagogy in Circuits and Electronics Courses at 13 Universities

Abstract

Kenneth Connor is a professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering (ECSE) where he teaches courses on electromagnetics, electronics and instrumentation, plasma physics, electric power, and general engineering. His research involves plasma physics, electromagnetics, photonics, biomedical sensors, engineering education, diversity in the engineering workforce, and technology enhanced learning. He learned problem solving from his father (ran a gray iron foundry), his mother (a nurse) and grandparents (dairy farmers). He has had the great good fortune to always work with amazing people, most recently professors teaching circuits and electronics from 13 HBCU ECE programs and the faculty, staff and students of the SMART LIGHTING ERC, where he is Education Director. He teaches courses in both analog and digital electronic circuit design and instrumentation, with a focus on wireless communication. He has more than 15 years experience in the development and delivery of synchronous and asynchronous web-based course supplements for electrical engineering courses. Dr. Astatke played a leading role in the development and implementation of the first completely online undergraduate ECE program in the State of Maryland. He has published over 50 papers and presented his research work at regional, national and international conferences. He also runs several exciting summer camps geared towards middle school, high school, and community college students to expose and increase their interest in pursuing Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Dr. Astatke travels to Ethiopia every summer to provide training and guest lectures related to the use of the mobile laboratory technology and pedagogy to enhance the ECE curriculum at five different universities. Dr. Charles J. Kim, Howard UniversityCharles Kim is a professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Howard University. He received a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1989, and worked as a researcher at Texas A&M University before he took an assistant professor at the University of Suwon in 1994. Since 1999, he is with Howard University. Dr. Kim's research interests include energy systems, fault detection and anticipation, embedded computing, safety-critical computer systems, and intelligent systems application. Dr. Kim is active in practicing experiential learning in engineering education with personal instrumentation such as mobile studio. Dr. Mohamed F. Chouikha, Howard UniversityDr. Mohamed Chouikha is a professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Howard University. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Dr. Chouikha's research interests include machine learning, intelligent control, and multimedia signal processing communications for secure networks, among other areas. He also focuses on enhancing recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities in the STEM areas in general, engineering in...

Engaging Electrical and Computer Engineering Freshman Students with an Electrical Engineering Practicum

“…From the survey results, it seems that the time allotted for use of the portable hands-on hardware is adequate (82%). Similar results have been obtained by thirteen institutions who used the ADB in a collaborative project 17,18 . Table 3 shows the effects of integration of the ADB and Electrical Engineering Practicum on the students in the freshman course.…”

Systematic Review of Rigorous Research in Teaching Introductory Circuits

“…The design is strong because experimental and control groups are distinguished by a single variable (application of the teaching method), and a variety of data (grades, surveys) was collected to evaluate the experiment. Some studies introduce variability by using different instructors for the experimental and control groups [8], [9], while others (n=15) lacked a control group altogether. The researchers agreed to mark studies as 'somewhat' utilizing a control group (n=10) if results were compared to multiple experimental trials (with no true control), or compared to a poorly designed control group.…”

“…Three of the four studies focus on out-of-class methods [5], [10], [11], while two concern in-class methods [12], [8] ( [8] applies both in-and out-of-class). [5] and [9] both study the effect of online homework on student learning. [9]'s WeBWorK framework is a simple, open-source online homework platform which translates typical circuits problems into a digital context, randomizing values in problems to prevent cheating.…”

“…[5] and [9] both study the effect of online homework on student learning. [9]'s WeBWorK framework is a simple, open-source online homework platform which translates typical circuits problems into a digital context, randomizing values in problems to prevent cheating. The authors conclude that WeBWorK "is at least comparable to paper homework for student learning" [9], but ultimately has little effect on student learning.…”

“…[9]'s WeBWorK framework is a simple, open-source online homework platform which translates typical circuits problems into a digital context, randomizing values in problems to prevent cheating. The authors conclude that WeBWorK "is at least comparable to paper homework for student learning" [9], but ultimately has little effect on student learning. Meanwhile, [5] implements a step-based online homework system with multiple unique features including: (a) on-demand generation of an "unlimited number of topologically different circuit diagrams", (b) on-demand generation of fully-worked examples, (c) flexible input handling.…”