Collaborative Research: Portable Cyber-Laboratories: Virtual Instruments and Affordable Prototyping Kits to Enhance Learning and Improve Access to Electrical Engineering Education

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Engineering - Electrical (55)This project, a collaborative effort between Kansas State University and East Carolina University, is developing mobile hands-on learning experiences for electrical engineering concepts and formally assessing whether laboratories performed at home are effective supplements for traditional lecture and laboratory based courses. The portable laboratory is based on innovative virtual instruments on laptop and handheld computers interacting with custom, low-cost prototyping kits integrated with plug-and-play data acquisition units. The project team is developing an affordable, portable circuit prototyping capability, creating laboratory experiences (hands-on protocols and software interfaces) that enable students to use the kits in their preferred environment, developing lecture demonstrations with these prototyping kits, and integrating these lecture and laboratory modules into existing courses. The evaluation effort, which is being led by an independent consultant, is monitoring cognitive, affective, and psychomotor changes using surveys, concept inventories, performance on the FFundamentals in Engineering Exam, and direct observation in the laboratory. Project materials and results are being disseminated through website postings, conference presentations, and journal publications and through connections with National Instruments. Broader impacts include the dissemination of the materials and pedagogy, the potential of providing laboratory experiences outside of the laboratory, and the investigators' involvement in a special outreach program for junior high school girls.