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A Mixed Instructional Methods Approach to Teaching a Circuits and Instrumentation Course

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Conference

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Seattle, Washington

Publication Date

June 14, 2015

Start Date

June 14, 2015

End Date

June 17, 2015

ISBN

978-0-692-50180-1

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Circuits and Systems Education 3

Tagged Division

Electrical and Computer

Page Count

17

Page Numbers

26.68.1 - 26.68.17

DOI

10.18260/p.23409

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/23409

Download Count

608

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Paper Authors

biography

Stephen Keith Holland James Madison University

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S. Keith Holland received his PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2004. He served as the Vice President for Research and Development with Avir Sensors, LLC prior to joining the Department of Engineering at James Madison University (JMU). At JMU, he developed statics, dynamics, circuits, instrumentation, controls, renewable energy, and engineering study abroad courses. His current research interest include material development for solar energy applications and optoelectronic device development for non-destructive testing and evaluation.

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Abstract

A Mixed Methods Approach to Teaching Circuits and InstrumentationThe circuits and instrumentation course at ______________ University providesstudents with foundational knowledge in DC, transient, and AC circuit design andanalysis. The 4-credit course is comprised of three weekly lectures and one weeklylaboratory session. Given the breadth of content and desired level of technical analysisrequired of this junior level course offering, numerous methods for extending learningbeyond the classroom and encouraging student engagement in the material have beenexplored. Over the past five years, active learning instructional techniques inspired bythe Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) approach and project basedlaboratory learning have been intermixed with traditional lectures and the flippedclassroom method in an attempt to improve student learning.This paper reports on the variety of methods used, how each instructional method isintegrated into the classroom environment, the rationale behind implementing thevarious techniques for each learning objective, and the observations and findings fromsuch implementation. Quantitative assessments, based on embedded measures overthe course of the past five years, course grades, and concept inventory performance,are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the methods and changes implemented.Qualitative assessments, including knowledge surveys and course evaluation data, areused to evaluate student response to the instructional methods described.

Holland, S. K. (2015, June), A Mixed Instructional Methods Approach to Teaching a Circuits and Instrumentation Course Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.23409

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