Tampa, Florida
June 15, 2019
June 15, 2019
June 19, 2019
Electrical and Computer
Diversity
13
10.18260/1-2--32081
https://peer.asee.org/32081
823
Kenneth Hite is a Graduate Student and Lab Manager/Instructor in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. His BS is in Electrical Engineering with a focus on Electronics. He has worked as Graduate Assistant for two Solar Decathlon competitions and several undergraduate senior design groups. He has been instructing labs and summer courses since 2012, covering much of the undergraduate core Electrical Engineering curriculum. The past several years he has also served as the Lab Manager, in which he works with students and administration on improving curriculum, managing equipment, and assisting in redesigning assessment protocols. He led the lab assessment during the last ABET review in Fall 2015. Mr. Hite is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering with a focus on the exploration of flotation-REST in the development of the Engineering Mindset in First-Year Engineering students.
Dr. Louis Slimak is the director of Academic Excellence and Assessment at West Virginia University. He chairs the University Assessment Council, and works with a wide range of stakeholders to improve the institution's academic and co-curricular programs through assessment of student learning, academic policies, and strategic planning.
Dimitris Korakakis, Professor in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering has been involved with Senior Capstone projects in the department for more than 10 years. He has been the lead faculty for the Lane Experience in Applied Design, the research track of the department’s capstone project and for the Nanosystems minor established in 2010 through an NSF funded NUE. He is also the PI for the Solar Decathlon awards, in 2013, 2015 and recently 2017, from the Department of Energy, advising students from a variety of disciplines across the university and many of these student participants use their work for the Solar House as their capstone project. His research interests are in the area of optoelectronic devices, based on wide bandgap semiconductors and organic materials with an emphasis on nanostructures and nanoscale architecture. He has about 100 peer-reviewed publications.
Terence C. Ahern is an Associate Professor Instructional Design and Technology at West Virginia University and coordinates the program in Instructional Design and Technology in the Department of Learning Sciences and Human Development. His research interests are in the use of instructional technology online. Dr. Ahern has published extensively in the areas of distance education and social network media and games. Currently he is using his expertise in instructional design and programming to create game-based learning environments for the middle school classroom.
Demand for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses continue to rise. Given personnel and budgetary constraints, we explored an approach that provides more individual assistance to students, while simultaneously allotting the student more time to practice essential course competencies. In the Fall of 2016, the undergraduate 300 level Analog Electronics Laboratory at the West Virginia University Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, set up one of its four sections offered in an online fashion as a “lab in a box.” This approach is a set of hands-on exercises where students design, build, and test circuits at home using an inexpensive electronics kit, digital multimeter, and a USB oscilloscope. With this “lab in a box,” the students, at their own chosen time and location, conduct several multi-week laboratory experiments such as basic amplifier design, LED four channel color organs, and frequency response of circuits. Each week, students use online tools such as discussion boards and blogs, a web-based course management system, built into the campus Learning Management System. This method allowed the TA to provide feedback, as well as other students who may have a different approach to solve the problem. Different online tools were used during different lab experiments. The students’ understanding of the material was evaluated through the assessment of their lab reports. In this paper, the authors describe the setup of the “lab in a box” method, the use of TA tools, the effects this method has had on learning outcomes, and present qualitative student responses to this online approach to learning.
Hite, K. R., & Slimak, L. J., & Korakakis, D., & Ahern, T. C. (2019, June), An Online Approach to the Analog Electronics Laboratory Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32081
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