Laboratory experience is among the key components in engineering education. It is highly instrumental and plays a significant role in students’ knowledge building, application, and distribution. Learning in laboratories is interactive and often collaborative. On the other hand, students, who learn engineering through online mechanisms, may face challenges with labs, which were frequently documented during the recent pandemic. To address such challenges, innovative online lab learning modules were developed, and learning strategies were implemented in five courses in electrical engineering, Circuits I, Electronics I, Electronics II, Signals and Systems, and Embedded System, through which students gain solid foundation before advancing to senior design projects.
The two main incorporated strategies were Open-Ended lab design and Teamwork implementation. Open-Ended lab modules using a lab-in-a-box approach allow students solving lab problems with multiple approaches fostering problem solving both independently and collaboratively. This innovative lab design promotes problem solving at various cognitive levels. It is better suited for concept exploration and collaborative lab learning environments as opposed to the traditional lab works with a prescribed approach leading students to follow certain procedures that may lack the problem exploration stage. Additionally, course instructors formed online lab groups, so that students were sharing the problem-solving process – from ideas formation to solutions – with their peers.
To evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented lab strategies, students in the participating courses were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Both assignment grades and students' feedback via surveys were used to evaluate students' learning. Participants in the control group were learning in labs through the materials that were aligned
with core concepts by following predetermined procedures. Students in the experimental group learned through inquiry-based lab materials that required them to work in teams by integrating core concepts together to find a solution and while following one of potentially many approaches. To maximize the online lab learning effect and to replicate the contemporary
industry, commerce, and research practices, instructor-structured cooperative learning strategies were applied along with pre-lab simulations and instructional videos.
This paper showcases the outcomes of our 2nd year implementation of active learning laboratory strategies on the mixed population of online and face-to-face students. We observed that students in the experimental group generally outperformed their counterparts in labs and showed significantly higher results in the assignments addressing more advanced concept
understanding and applications (grand average of 88.3% vs. 66.3%). Surveys also indicated that students saw the benefits of collaboration with Open-Ended lab modules not only for learning concepts, but also for improving their communication skills. Students were able to collaborate on lab problems through various communication tools, such as course Learning Management System (LMS) and mobile apps forming online learning communities.
We believe that that the implementation of open-ended collaborative laboratory strategies can assist students in cultivating a deeper comprehension, fostering self-confidence, and refining their critical thinking abilities, all while strengthening their sense of inclusion within the field of engineering.
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This content will become publicly available on October 18, 2024
Online Electrical Engineering Labs with Collaborative Open-Ended Assignments
This innovative practice paper describes our implementation of open-ended (O-E) collaborative lab assignments as a work in progress. It provides details on the O-E collaborative lab assignments, shares some examples of O-E labs used, and reports the results of the first year of implementation. We believe that open-ended collaborative labs will help students develop a deeper understanding, build self-confidence and improve critical thinking skills while increasing the sense of belonging in the field of engineering.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2048328
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10524153
- Publisher / Repository:
- IEEE
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 979-8-3503-3642-9
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 5
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- College Station, TX, USA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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