Abstract:

Universities are changing the way of teaching. Some traditional face-to-face studies are been adapted to blended learning modality [1]. This adaptation can be quite complicated in studies with a high degree of practical load. This is the case of most engineering courses, such as electrical circuit-analysis. Circuit-analysis is a basic engineering skill, which is taught in many areas such as electrical engineering, electronics engineering or control engineering, among many others.

The conduction of hands-on lab sessions of circuit-analysis is a challenge in blended learning education. To face this challenge, several approaches can be found in the state of the art. On the one hand, some authors have built virtual laboratories [2], in such a way that students can operate with a real laboratory, which is far from them. For that, they use a software environment that allows them to manage the lab. Other authors have directly replaced traditional circuit analysis sessions with simulations [3]. For that, they use well-known electrical circuit simulators such as Spice, Qucs, Multisim, PartSim, among others. The main criticism of these approaches is that students do not interact with electrical components physically. Virtual laboratories are often expensive and not affordable by many Higher Education institutions. In this work, we propose a new approach to carry out hands-on lab sessions of circuit analysis for blended learning. This approach consists of using a low-cost domestic lab to conduct laboratory sessions in students’ own homes.

In order to adopt this approach, laboratory-teaching materials must be adapted to this modality. Teaching resources must ensure that students achieve lab-related skills. Adapted materials must be self-descriptive and attractive enough to motivate students to work on their own. They must be designed to ensure that there is no electrical risk in students’ houses.

In this paper, we present the results of adapting lab resources associated with circuit-analysis to this new teaching approach. Three lab sessions have been designed for this modality. The first session deals with the fundamentals of circuit analysis, Ohm’s law and resistance and voltage measurement. The second session is related to Kirchhoff’s laws and current measurement. The third session presents power measurements and Thévenin’s teorem. In this work, we present and describe the adapted lab resources. These teaching materials will be published in an open repository for reuse by any interested teacher.

However, the adoption of this approach leads to a major challenge: the evaluation of lab sessions. Regarding this point, three different alternatives are discussed: the conduction of in-person laboratory tests/exams on laboratory sessions, the presentation of laboratory results in a face-to-face session or the recording of multimedia materials showing the circuits without the need for presence in the laboratory. Advantages and disadvantages of each approach are discussed. As a result, this study concludes that recording videos showing the results of practical sessions along with sending lab session sheets could be the most suitable way of evaluation for blended learning.

References:
[1] Alkhatib, O.J., 2018, J. Compt. Edu., Access: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40692-018-0097-x
[2] Heradio R. et al., 2016, Compt. Edu., Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.03.010
[3] Chen Y.L. et al., 2011, J. Edu. Tec. Soc., Access: https://goo.gl/wegTVF

Keywords:

Laboratory, blended learning, electrical circuits, open access.