Abstract:

The increasing complexity of circuit design has made electronic design automation tools critical for the design and validation of circuits. Simulators are one such tool, modern versions of which are capable substitutes for physical hardware in circuit analysis and are widely used by practicing engineers for a variety of tasks, including troubleshooting. Hence it is important to instruct engineering students on the use of simulators. Training engineering students on simulators will help them solve multiple workplace problems relevant to the design, system analysis, decision-making, and troubleshooting. But the disruptions to education caused by the global pandemic has made training students on the use of simulators a challenge for instructors. To better understand the strategies that students use to troubleshoot issues they face, the challenges in troubleshooting, and milestones at which instructor intervention is required a qualitative study was conducted with participants drawn from a first-year engineering exploration course. The results of this study show that students are quite often successful in troubleshooting issues they face and the primary challenges they had were related to their lack of prior knowledge, availability of limited components in Tinkercad (online circuit simulation platform), and the inability to connect information from diverse sources.

Keywords:

Engineering Troubleshooting, Simulation, Project-Based Learning.