Electric Circuits Online: Towards a Completely Online Electrical Engineering Curriculum

Yacob Astatke; Craig J. Scott; Jumoke 'Kemi Ladeji-Osias

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Conference: 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Vancouver, BC
Publication Date: June 26, 2011
Start Date: June 26, 2011
End Date: June 29, 2011
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Distance and Web-based Learning in ECE
Tagged Division: Electrical and Computer
Page Count: 13
Page Numbers: 22.545.1 - 22.545.13
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--17826
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/17826
Download Count: 416

Paper Authors

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Yacob Astatke Morgan State University

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Dr. Yacob Astatke completed both his Doctor of Engineering and B.S.E.E. degrees from Morgan State University (MSU) and his M.S.E.E. from Johns Hopkins University. He has been a full time faculty member in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department at MSU since August 1994 and currently serves as the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies. He teaches courses in both analog and digital electronic circuit and communication systems design and instrumentation. Dr. Astatke has more than 15 years experience in the development and delivery of synchronous and asynchronous web-based course supplements for electrical engineering courses.

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Craig J. Scott Morgan State University

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Dr. Craig Scott, Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Morgan State University, has extensive experience in the development of advanced engineering visualization tools and courseware. Additionally, he has been conducting empirical studies on effective learning technologies, as well as remedial math preparation for engineering students. He teaches courses in electromagnetics, solid state theory, characterization of semiconductor materials, computer vision and computational electrical engineering.

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Jumoke 'Kemi Ladeji-Osias Morgan State University orcid.org/0000-0002-8645-696X

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Dr. Jumoke Ladeji-Osias is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Morgan State University. Kemi has experience in developing algorithms for synthetic vision systems. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in digital design. She has a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering.

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Abstract

Electric Circuits Online: Towards a Completely Online Electrical Engineering CurriculumThis paper presents our experiences and results in developing and delivering two core Electricaland Computer Engineering (ECE) courses with laboratory components completely online usingan internet based distance learning delivery system and the Mobile StudioTM technology andpedagogy. The challenge in offering ECE courses online is the fact they have a very intensivehands-on component, such as design and laboratory experiments, that require students to useexpensive laboratory equipment to complete and demonstrate their projects. This implied thatuntil now, institutions offering ECE laboratory courses had to have students attend the laboratorycourses on their campuses. Our ECE department is in the process of redesigning and deliveringall 200-level and 300-level electrical/electronic engineering core and laboratory courses utilizingunique and innovative distance learning technologies.We successfully developed and delivered two pilot courses, Electric Circuits, and Introduction toElectrical Laboratory completely online during the summer of 2010 to 6 students. Both coursesare currently being offered completely online to students enrolled in our regular ECE program.This paper will present a detailed explanation on how we used the Mobile StudioTM technologyto redesign and offer ECE laboratory experiments that can be conducted by students withoutusing regular laboratory space and equipment. We also present detailed description on how weused the Adobe ConnectTM software to allow the students to demonstrate their design andlaboratory experiment circuits to the course instructor from a remote location. The results haveshown that the students were able to conduct most of the design and laboratory experimentsrequired in the regular courses without the need to be on campus. All the students enrolled in thepilot summer courses successfully completed the two ECE courses and are currently enrolled inthe follow-up courses.Although both the Mobile StudioTM technology, and the Adobe ConnectTM software havepreviously been used separately by other institutions for similar applications, to the best of ourknowledge no other higher education institution in the United States has combined bothtechnologies to offer ECE undergraduate courses completely online. This new approachrepresents a major paradigm shift in the way higher education institutions should think whendelivering Electrical Engineering education. We hope that it will open the door to many studentswho are candidates for joining the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)workforce such as, current and new personnel relocating to new military bases, mid-careeremployees, and ex-military personnel because they typically require the opportunity to continueto earn a living while pursing their education and are most often unable to relocate to collegecampuses for the 2 to 3 years required to complete the requisite courses for a bachelors degree.

Citation
Format

Astatke, Y., & Scott, C. J., & Ladeji-Osias, J. K. (2011, June), Electric Circuits Online: Towards a Completely Online Electrical Engineering Curriculum Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--17826

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Electric Circuits Online: Towards a Completely Online Electrical Engineering                                CurriculumThis paper presents our experiences and results in developing and delivering two core Electricaland Computer Engineering (ECE) courses with laboratory components completely online usingan internet based distance learning delivery system and the Mobile StudioTM technology andpedagogy. The challenge in offering ECE courses online is the fact they have a very intensivehands-on component, such as design and laboratory experiments, that require students to useexpensive laboratory equipment to complete and demonstrate their projects. This implied thatuntil now, institutions offering ECE laboratory courses had to have students attend the laboratorycourses on their campuses. Our ECE department is in the process of redesigning and deliveringall 200-level and 300-level electrical/electronic engineering core and laboratory courses utilizingunique and innovative distance learning technologies.We successfully developed and delivered two pilot courses, Electric Circuits, and Introduction toElectrical Laboratory completely online during the summer of 2010 to 6 students. Both coursesare currently being offered completely online to students enrolled in our regular ECE program.This paper will present a detailed explanation on how we used the Mobile StudioTM technologyto redesign and offer ECE laboratory experiments that can be conducted by students withoutusing regular laboratory space and equipment. We also present detailed description on how weused the Adobe ConnectTM software to allow the students to demonstrate their design andlaboratory experiment circuits to the course instructor from a remote location. The results haveshown that the students were able to conduct most of the design and laboratory experimentsrequired in the regular courses without the need to be on campus. All the students enrolled in thepilot summer courses successfully completed the two ECE courses and are currently enrolled inthe follow-up courses.Although both the Mobile StudioTM technology, and the Adobe ConnectTM software havepreviously been used separately by other institutions for similar applications, to the best of ourknowledge no other higher education institution in the United States has combined bothtechnologies to offer ECE undergraduate courses completely online. This new approachrepresents a major paradigm shift in the way higher education institutions should think whendelivering Electrical Engineering education. We hope that it will open the door to many studentswho are candidates for joining the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)workforce such as, current and new personnel relocating to new military bases, mid-careeremployees, and ex-military personnel because they typically require the opportunity to continueto earn a living while pursing their education and are most often unable to relocate to collegecampuses for the 2 to 3 years required to complete the requisite courses for a bachelors degree.
AU  - Yacob Astatke
AU  - Craig J. Scott
AU  - Jumoke 'Kemi Ladeji-Osias
CY  - Vancouver, BC
DA  - 2011/06/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Electric Circuits Online: Towards a Completely Online Electrical Engineering Curriculum
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/17826
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--17826
ER  -