Development of Concept-Linking Inventories for a Breadth-First Approach in Electrical Engineering Fundamentals Pedagogy

Final Paper pdf 251KB

Our Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department started an effort three years ago to revise core courses in electrical circuits, electronics, and signals & systems. The revision effort sought to combine the three subjects into a tightly integrated three-course sequence. An objective was to include aspects of all three subjects in all three courses so that students would develop an understanding of relationships across the subjects. This revised approach introduced challenges to the assessment of learning outcomes. Traditional concept inventories are well established for individual topics such as electronics and signals and systems, but these single-subject inventories are not intended to assess relationships spanning multiple subjects. We endeavor in this paper to present our view of the interrelation among these core subjects and the resulting additions to concept inventories needed to assess understanding developed to bridge the topics.

Author(s):

Harry Powell    
Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Virginia
United States

Todd Delong    
Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Virginia
United States

Ronald Williams    
University of Virginia
United States