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

工程-电气（55）该项目是堪萨斯州立大学和东卡罗莱纳大学的合作项目，旨在开发电子工程概念的移动实践学习体验，并正式评估在家进行的实验室是否有效地补充了传统的讲座和实验室课程。便携式实验室基于笔记本电脑和手持电脑上的创新虚拟仪器，与集成了即插即用数据采集单元的定制低成本原型工具包进行交互。项目团队正在开发一种负担得起的便携式电路原型功能，创建实验室体验（动手协议和软件界面），使学生能够在他们喜欢的环境中使用这些工具包，使用这些原型工具包开发讲座演示，并将这些讲座和实验室模块集成到现有课程中。评估工作由一名独立顾问领导，通过调查、概念清单、在工程基础考试中的表现以及在实验室的直接观察来监测认知、情感和精神运动的变化。项目材料和结果通过网站发布、会议报告和期刊出版物以及通过与国家仪器公司的联系进行传播。更广泛的影响包括材料和教学方法的传播，在实验室之外提供实验室经验的潜力，以及调查人员参与初中女生的特别外展计划。

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.