Abstract:

The article describes a comparative qualitative study, which aims at researching the usage of a tablet device and a regular whiteboard for the lecturer's handwriting during the undergraduate engineering course of Analog Electronics. The research was carried out during one academic semester at an engineering college. 39 students of the course participated in the study. The research illuminates different pedagogical aspects of using both teaching tools: the lesson's progression is faster when writing on a whiteboard; this progression leads to more dynamic classes, better students' concentration and enhanced understanding; the small writing area of the tablet makes the understanding more difficult. The study demonstrates that the changing of teaching tools must be accompanied by the changing of teaching methods.

The research settings:
The research was carried out during one academic semester in a typical engineering course of Analog Electronics. The course involves explanations on the actions of analog electronic circuits accompanied by long algebraical developments of complicated formulas. During the course, the lecturer used both writing tools – the tablet was used 15 times, and the whiteboard was used 11 times. A qualitative method – a comparative analysis – was chosen for the study. In the middle of the semester, the lecturer asked the students for their opinions on the advantages and disadvantages of the tablet usage compared with the whiteboard. The students' answers were analyzed, and the final questionnaire, which included 14 statements, was designed. In the end of the course the students were asked to provide answers to the questionnaire.

Results:
The research illuminates different pedagogical aspects of the usage of both teaching tools. Thus, 28 students out of 36 agree that the lesson's progression is faster using the whiteboard; 26 believe that such progression leads to more dynamic classes and thus promotes better concentration and enhanced understanding of the taught material; 21 agree with the claim that using a whiteboard makes the class more interesting than usage a tablet. Although the participants used PDF files of the lectures' content shared on the course site after every lecture, 18 of them still believed they should use their own handwriting during the lectures. 24 students support the claim that it is easier to follow lecture process when the material is written on a whiteboard; 19 of them think that the small writing area of the tablet makes the understanding more difficult. This last disadvantage of tablets was marked in [3] too.
Finally, in contrast with the research assumptions, it was found out that most of the participants who answered the final questionnaire (22 out of 36) preferred the whiteboard over the tablet. The results of the questionnaire show that the this opinion did not change during the course, and 23 out of 35 respondents who filled in the preliminary questionnaire preferred the usage of the whiteboard too.

Conclusions:
The study demonstrates that benefits of modern teaching technology do not always bring immediate positive results in real practice. Changing the teaching tools must be accompanied by changing the teaching methods. The future research will focus on the investigation of the methods, which can emphasize the advantages of tablet usage by lecturers.

Keywords:

Engineering course, tablet, white board.