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Session 2532

Introductory Electric Circuits on the Internet via Mallard® Software Hans H. Kuehl University of Southern California

Abstract

The introductory sophomore linear circuits course at the University of Southern California was taught for the first time via the Internet in the spring of 1999, using Mallard® software to deliver the homework assignments. Mallard® was chosen because it has many attractive features that make it well suited to support the teaching of an introductory circuits course.

The student response to the use of Mallard® was extremely positive. Student interest in the homework was increased markedly. Especially liked by students was the capability to submit homework solutions at any hour of the day or night via the Internet, to get immediate feedback regarding the correctness of their answers, and to be able to submit a revised answer if the previous answer was incorrect

In the development of the homework assignments, we have structured the more involved Mallard® problems to contain a series of steps requiring intermediate answers. This allows the student to more easily pinpoint where the error lies if the final solution is incorrect.

This paper describes our experiences in this initial endeavor, and focuses primarily on: 1. The advantages of using Mallard® in teaching an introductory circuits course. 2. The response of the students to use of Mallard® in the teaching of electric circuits. 3. Our approach in the development of problems with a structure that helps to guide the student along the path toward the correct solution.

I. Introduction

EE 202 is a basic sophomore linear circuits course at the University of Southern California (USC) with a large enrollment consisting of both electrical and biomedical engineering students, which is well suited for Web-based enhancements and asynchronous learning networks teaching/learning techniques. Because of this, we have developed a new version of this course that incorporates an innovative Web-based learning technology that we find strengthens student interest in learning the course material. The principal thrust of this initial effort was the development of Web-based homework problems for this course using Mallard® software.1 We have been successful in fulfilling our fundamental goal, which was to have it on-line in the spring of 1999, making it the first engineering course at USC that has interactive Web-based homework using Mallard® courseware. Based on student response and performance, the Mallard®-based enhancement of our basic circuits course has been very successful. The Mallard® platform and format appear to have great appeal to our students, increasing their interest and performance significantly on the homework assignments. In this paper, the

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Kuehl, H. H. (2000, June), Introductory Electric Circuits On The Internet Via Mallard Software Paper presented at 2000 Annual Conference, St. Louis, Missouri. 10.18260/1-2--8516