Using the Internet as an Aid in Technical Education

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Using the Internet as an Aid in Technical
Education

• John R. Ebden
• Seneca College
• Toronto Canada

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PANIC

• Imagine you are Larry, a student in my class
• Its 200 am and there is a quiz on
  series-parallel circuits at 1000 am
• What do you do for a quick overview?

LARRY
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IDEA

• Ill check out the Self Teaching Software my prof
  gave us

LARRY
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ANOTHER IDEA

• That was great !
• Now Ill check the on-line lecture notes

LARRY
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MORE IDEAS

• Were really rocking now
• Now Ill test a couple of circuits using the
  on-line files and my Electronic Workbench Bench
  software

LARRY
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PANIC OVER

• This stuff is a breeze
• Ill see how much I know by doing an on-line
  practice quiz

LARRY
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HOW DOES LARRY GET ALL THIS ?

• Students in my class have 24 hour access to my
  web page.
• THIS IS THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION

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Class Web Page
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Why use the Internet for Teaching?

• Vast amount of material available
• saves re-inventing the wheel
• can easily provide up-to-date information
• Reduces communication problems
• Both students and faculty can work from home

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Colleges face increasing problems

• Problems are a consequence of
• Government cut-backs
• Increased student population (urban areas)
• Increased interest in electrical/computer areas
• Lack of available qualified faculty

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Student Problems

• Large classes
• Higher competition
• Increased fees
• Commuting problems
• Juggling school with part-time jobs

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Faculty Problems

• Cut backs in course hours
• Teach more courses
• Share courses with support staff
• Sporadic student attendance
• Less time for PD

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Pessimist

• Problems will make life increasingly difficult
• carry on as you are and things will get worse

Optimist

• Problems will provide opportunities for growth
• use a course web page to help yourself and your
  students

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Using a Web Page for a class provides

• A common forum for professor and students
• A valuable communication tool
• A convenient storage facility for course
  information
• A guided use to the World Wide Web
• Access to software

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Helping Factors

• Computers get cheaper and more powerful each year
• Many students have home computers
• Colleges provide server access both on and off
  campus

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Class Web Page
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Timetable

• Links directly to the department server
• Timetable changes are updated immediately
• Relieves room conflict problems

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Class Web Page
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Course Outline

• Essential course information
• Schedules for laboratory experiments
• Parts and tool lists
• College policy on plagiarism, missed tests, etc

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Course Outline
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Class Web Page
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Assignments

• List of recommended problems from each chapter
• Solutions obtained in .pdf files on a separate
  page by clicking on appropriate assignment number

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Class Web Page
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Quizzes

• Quizzes are basically a tool to ensure student is
  keeping up with the work
• They are an excellent preparation for term tests
• Quizzes are made up in more than one form and
  colour coded. Students with quizzes of similar
  colour do not sit together.

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Quizzes

• Solutions to in-class quizzes are given in a
  similar as the assignment solutions
• Practice quizzes are readily available from
• a test bank of instructor provided problems
• publisher web sites

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Class Web Page
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Tests

• Information on Lab tests and Term tests is
  provided on the web page
• Solutions are available in a similar manner to
  that for quizzes and assignments
• More than one version of each test is given to
  avoid students copying in large classes where
  they are sitting close together

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Class Web Page
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Exam

• Information is provided on exam and a recommended
  study guide
• List of practice problems can be viewed or
  downloaded as excellent practice for the exam

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Class Web Page
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Lecture Notes

• Provides topic details with reading references
  for each class
• students missing classes can catch up more easily
• less bugging the professor
• makes good re-run or review of lecture

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Lecture Notes

• Following slides are from my devices course
• these notes on Diodes were created using Word and
  imported into Power Point

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Lecture Notes

• Following slides are the lecture notes for ETY155
• these have been edited from slides provided by
  the publisher of the textbook used for the course

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Chapter 7

• Series-Parallel Circuits

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Analysis of Series-Parallel Circuits

• To find the currents in the circuit, first redraw
  the circuit.
• Move the source branch all the way to the left.
• Reduce the circuit to a series circuit..

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Analysis of Series-Parallel Circuits

• Use the Voltage Divider Rule to determine
  voltages.
• Use Ohms Law to determine the currents.
• Notice RT 3 6 9 k?

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Class Web Page
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Discussion Group

• Service provided by Netscape in collaboration
  with Seneca College
• Restricted to students in class
• Threaded format available
• Encourage students to use this and not personal
  e-mail for related questions
• Gives 24 hr access to help both on and off campus

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Class Web Page
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Self Teaching Software

• Provides downloadable .exe files for
  understanding circuits
• software used is professionally produced
• extensive use of graphics
• straight text based software is not appropriate
  for college students

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Class Web Page
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Electronic Workbench Files

• Circuits designed that provide additional
  learning opportunities
• comparison of a complex circuit and its Thevenin
  equivalent
• loading effect of instruments
• Following file corresponds to the series-parallel
  circuit described earlier
• Notice RT 9 k?

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Electronic Workbench Files
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Class Web Page
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Learning Aid Links

• Provide convenient listing of web sites for
  appropriate course topics
• resistor colour codes
• Kirchoff voltage and current laws
• series-parallel circuits

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Class Web Page
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Links to Publisher Tests

• Most publishers provide additional information
  related to their texts
• Usually divided into chapters
• summary
• tips
• quizzes
• discussion groups

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Future Work

• Video/audio aids for labs
• breadboarding
• set up of equipment
• soldering
• available on both web site and lab workstations

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Future Work

• Use of Web Page Lecture Notes directly in class
  by instructor using lap top
• less reliance on chalk and talk
• can integrate with circuit software to support
  class examples
• can address large classes
• hand-outs easily created

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Future Work

• Possible integration with commercial web software
• Web CT
• Blackboard
• currently used by some faculty at Seneca College

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Conclusion

• In the opening speech of the STCEX Conference, Dr
  Hermann Shmidt stated
• .. In the 21 st century paradigm the primary
  learning focus is on the student, the secondary
  focus is on the teacher

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Conclusion

• Utilisation of a class web page achieves this
  objective

You got that right !! I aced my class quiz
Larry