An online approach to the analog electronics laboratory

Abstract

Demand for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses continue to rise. Given personnel and budgetary constraints, we explored an approach that provides more individual assistance to students, while simultaneously allotting the individual student more time to practice essential course competencies independently. In the Fall of 2016, the undergraduate 300 level Analog Electronics Laboratory at the West Virginia University Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, set up one of its four sections offered in an online fashion as a “lab in a box.” This approach is a set of hands-on exercises where students design, build, and test circuits at home using an inexpensive all-in-one electronics kit, digital multimeter, and a USB oscilloscope. With this “lab in a box,” the students, at their own convenience, conduct several multi-week laboratory experiments such as basic amplifier design, LED four channel color organs, and frequency response of circuits. Each week, students use online tools such as discussion boards and blogs through a web-based course management system, built into the campus Learning Management System. This method allows the Teaching Assistant to provide feedback and allows other students to engage and work with each other to solve the problem. Different online tools were used during different lab experiments. The students' understanding of the material was evaluated through the assessment of their lab reports. In this paper, we describe the setup of the “lab in a box” method, the use of TA tools, the effects this method has had on learning outcomes, and present qualitative student responses to this online approach to learning.