Student learning in a required Electrical Engineering (EE) course for non-EE majors: Perception of values for future work in multidisciplinary teams

Abstract

Due to the unprecedented progress of analog/digital electronics and programmable devices, all engineering fields are getting intertwined with Electrical Engineering (EE) and non-EE engineering majors are required to take at least one EE course. But still, some undergraduate non-EE majors do not see the relevance of EE to their studies until they face real-world problems at workplace, when the opportunity for learning in required courses is already missed. We strive to overcome this unfortunate tendency by combining research in engineering education and practical teaching of a large EE service course for non-EE majors from the College of Engineering, in two inter-related ways: i. Monitor and influence the students’ perception of the value of learning EE; foster their understanding of the connectedness between EE and all fields of engineering, to help them achieve more in their major fields, and ii. Gradually evolve the course to make it more valuable for students, relevant to what they learn in their fields of major, to their future projects and work. During each semester, we design surveys and regularly offer them to the currently enrolled students; analyze the statistics of their answers and get deeper understanding from reading their open-ended responses; and immediately apply our findings to teaching. Here we report our work in Fall 2012, when the course structure was changed to enhance the lab experience, and present the results that reveal: o The initial attitudes of students to this course o The gradual evolution of their attitudes and what caused this evolution, and o The growth of students’ understanding of the connectedness between EE and all fields of engineering, and appreciation of the value of EE for their profession. Some of our findings may serve as recipe for success for other service courses. Background We investigate the student learning in a large introductory, service course in Electrical Engineering (EE) for non-EE students, mostly from our College of Engineering. This report presents further development of our earlier studies reported at ASEE 2011 and FIE 2011 conferences [Comment for Reviewers: Exact references are not given in order not to disclose our affiliation, etc.; they will be included in the final version of the paper]. Here we broaden the scope of our study and deepen the analysis of the students’ feedback.