Enhancing Student Engagement in an Electrical Engineering Course for Non-majors Using Project-Based Homework

Final Paper pdf 226KB

This paper describes major revisions made to an Electrical Engineering course for non-majors with the express purpose of increasing student engagement by replacing a significant portion of the traditional homework with hands-on projects to reinforce concepts. Projects included a small magnetic levitation system, audio filtering and amplifier circuits, a light meter, and a final project requiring control of DC and stepper motors to create a machine to lift and accurately deposit small objects. Strategies for efficient grading of projects are also discussed. Evidence of increased student engagement in the form of numeric and written course evaluation results are presented, as well as lessons learned from the implementation of these projects over a two-year period.

Author(s):

Timothy Mohr    
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Grove City College
United States