Using e-learning to Supplement First Year Modules
Phillip Naylor, Tom Cross
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Nottingham, University Park,
Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Email: phillip.naylor@nottingham.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
The Universities of Birmingham, Nottingham and Newcastle collaborated to produce an MSc
distance-learning package for Power Electronics and Drives. The learning material is web
based with animations produced either in Macromedia Flash or Java.
At Nottingham we decided to build on this work by using the techniques developed to
produce e-learning material supplements for first year modules.
Experience has shown that some of the current students have difficulty visualising many
electrical engineering concepts. This is in addition to problems they may have with
mathematics.
Our aim is to provide supporting material for below-average students who may benefit from
additional tuition. E-learning was chosen as the medium mainly because there is not time in
lectures to pursue the additional material in detail. Since visualisation is one of the core
problems encountered, static lecture notes do not address the issue. Web-based animated
tutorials provide one possible solution to these problems.
1. INTRODUCTION
In 2000 the Universities of Birmingham, Nottingham and Newcastle secured an EPSRC grant
to produce a distance learning package based on the joint MSc in Power Electronics,
Machines and Drives offered by the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham. Each
University produced four full modules towards the project.
Our chosen method of presentation was to produce web-based material, suitable for inclusion
in a WebCT or Blackboard environment. We decided to produce pages that could be viewed
on an 800x600 pixel monitor setting – without scrolling. Further, each page had a standard
format with a Macromedia Flash animation or Java applet on the left side and text on the right
side (1). Figure 1 shows a typical example of the type of material produced.
At Nottingham, when some of the material had been produced and circulated for comments
and revision, we found that it was being used in ways we did not expect. Some of the
animations were used as a teaching aid within the traditionally taught MSc. One whole topic
was being used to teach first year undergraduates the principles behind induction motors. In
2001 it was necessary to replace one traditionally taught module with the distance learning
material supplied on a CD. We received very favourable feedback from this emergency
measure.
An e-learning development fund became available at Nottingham. The School of Electrical
and Electronic Engineering decided to bid for some of this money so that the knowledge
gained in the production of the distance learning material could be transferred to addressing
the current problems students are experiencing with first year modules. All students now have
Figure 1. Distance learning page from the MSc Power Electronics, Machines and Drives.
access to computing facilities either through well resourced school or university laboratories,
or they have their own computer which can be connected to the student network. Therefore an
e-learning solution is a viable one.
2. THE CURRENT PROBLEMS
After talking to colleagues, there seems to be a number of problems that recent student intakes
have, including:
1. Poor mathematical skills – this may be because we are encouraged to take more
students, or that current A levels are not as challenging as in previous years. Some
students are unable to simplify simple equations. (e.g. A/B=C, therefore A=BxC is
beyond them).
2. Lack of spatial awareness – some students have difficulty visualising engineering
principles. They cannot picture in their minds vectors, phasors and the operations on
them. Of more concern is the inability to recognise two circuits as the same when they
are drawn slightly differently.
3. There is not time (or, in some cases, the will) to simplify course material to take in to
account the change in ability of the student intake.
4. Although some colleagues produce additional material for the students, it usually
amounts to copies of PowerPoint slides or lecture notes in PDF form. Occasionally,
data sheets have been included. Where any of these are provided, they are not
provided in a consistent and logical manner.
The e-learning material that is now in production will attempt to address points 1-3. At
present, we are not considering point 4.
3. ADDRESSING THE PROBLEMS
Based on the use made of the distance learning modules, the e-learning material to be
produced falls into two closely related categories:
1. Material that may be useful to illustrate a concept within a lecture.
2. Extra material, usually in the form of on-line tutorials, which addresses those parts of
courses identified as “difficult” or “difficult to visualise”.
Point 1 requires the active co-operation of the module lecturer. Point 2 can be addressed
providing the full syllabus is available and the difficult areas can be identified. It may be
better not to have too much co-operation from the module lecturer in this case, otherwise the
e-learning material may repeat the problems occurring in the lecture course!
As funding is only available for two years in the first instance, it is vital to address the most
important problems with the various first year modules. The difficulty is determining which
are the most important problems. We used a range of indicators including progress test
results, exam results, first year tutor feedback and lecturer feedback. In some cases these
informed us of obvious problems (e.g. vectors and phasors) whilst in other cases it was not
possible to identify individual problems.
A further constraint on developing the material is that we cannot assume that the relevant
mathematical topic has been taught by the time the student looks through the tutorial. We do
assume that all students are familiar with A/AS specifications P1 and P2, although not P3 (2).
In particular, we have a problem in that the complex arithmetic required for phasors is taught
in the first semester (by the School of Mathematical Sciences) – as is the electrical and
electronic circuits module that uses it.
4. MIGRATING FROM DISTANCE LEARNING TO E-LEARNING
Although we chose the basic layout of the e-learning material to have a format similar to that
in Figure 1, it was soon clear that this is where the design similarities end.
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Distance learning requires the whole module to be available on-line. The e-learning
material does not cover the whole module.
The MSc modules converted to distance learning were already successful. The
“difficult” parts of the first year modules are unsuccessful and require an element of
re-writing for the e-learning environment.
Students who buy the distance learning MSc package are motivated to use it. Our
difficulty with e-learning for first year modules is two fold. i) Getting students to look
at the material; ii) maintaining their interest so that they view the whole tutorial.
The chosen format for distance learning means each page has an animation or drawing
on the LHS, but it is often the text on the RHS that is more important. For e-learning,
the animation is the tutorial, and the text on the RHS merely key phrases.
Distance learning material is constrained by the download speed of animations and
diagrams. We set strict limits, based on the Ufi handbook (3), for file sizes (Flash
movies, JPEG images). This was necessary because distance learning students may be
using a 56k modem connection to access the material. (Clearly, with widespread use
of broadband these constraints are probably out of date). We expect e-learning
material to be accessed using the campus intranet, which means download speeds are
very fast. However, there are bottlenecks in the intranet and we intend to ensure that
most animations stream seamlessly wherever possible.
5. VISULISATION PROBLEMS
Figure 2 shows an extract from traditional lecture notes describing the operation of a threephase motor. The lecturer may have used a colour OHP slide during the lecture, but invariably
this handout was copied in black and white. Rarely has the process been animated.
Figure 2. Traditional handout notes describing three phase motor operation.
Using methods developed during the production of the distance learning material, the above
process can be animated and presented in colour on a web page. Figure 3 shows a still from
the animation. The very nature of this static written medium means we cannot appreciate the
benefits of the animation.
A recent evaluation of student understanding showed that they have a problem recognising
simple circuit layouts when presented in a slightly different way (4). Students were presented
with the left circuit in Figure 4 and asked to determine the currents I1, I2 and I3. A very
common mistake was to assume that IA=IB and therefore I1=I2=0.5I3. The animated sequence
partially shown in Figure 4 attempts to show the students that the circuits are, in fact, equal.
From this the student should be able to determine that the currents are all equal. Other circuit
geometries have been presented to students in this form, in the hope that it will encourage
them to seek a simpler representation before attempting a solution.
Figure 3. E-learning animation of rotating field.
Figure 4. Stills from animation sequence identifying left circuit identical to right circuit.
Students need to be aware that engineers have the annoying habit of representing some ideas
in many ways. In describing sinusoidal waveforms, we could use a time domain
representation
f (t ) = A pk sin(ωt + θ ) or f (t ) = Arms 2 sin(ωt + θ ) ,
or we might use a phasor representation, which may be in Cartesian form (a+jb) or polar
form Arms ∠θ .
To illustrate this multiple representation, we provide many animated examples that go through
the process of equating one form with another. Figure 5 shows the final frame of one such
animation. The animation starts indicating what 100+j100 means on an argand diagram. It
goes on to convert this to the polar representation. The polar form then allows the sinusoidal
representation on the right to be determined almost immediately.
Figure 5. Still from animation sequence equating various representations of sinusoids
6. MATHEMATICAL PROBLEMS
Although mathematics teaching is the responsibility of a separate school, it was worth
reminding students of how to add, subtract, multiply and divide complex numbers. This was
necessary as part of the tutorials on phasors. With some students having problems with simple
mathematical manipulation we tried to animate the processes to reinforce the techniques
involved. Figure 6 shows a frame from an animation, with additional arrows indicating
movement of terms.
Figure 6. Still from animation sequence expanding terms in complex division
7. ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
A useful, but very time-consuming idea, is to produce a selection of self-assessment
questions. Many approaches could be considered, but we are currently investigating a series
of multi-choice questions with “sensible” wrong answers. We attempt to repeat the sort of
mistakes that the students make and produce a response that points out where they went
wrong and how to correct it. Figure 7 shows the question and final frame of the animated
response for a question posed as part of the Electrical and Electronic Circuits module. At the
end of a few questions a mark is produced and maybe a recommendation to view one of the
tutorials. It has been suggested that it would also be useful to an element of randomness into
the questions so that, if a wrong answer is given, the student is represented with the question
but with different circuit component values (for example). While this deserves serious
investigation, the development time means that it cannot be considered during the current
project.
Figure 7. Question and final frame from assessment question.
8. EVALUATION
The distance learning material has received positive feedback from users.
We have only had one complete e-learning supplement available during the current year (for a
second semester module). Early feedback was disappointing – students did not bother to look
at the material stating they might look at it when revising for the exam.
Web server logs show a large number of hits on the tutorial pages just before the exam. We
need to evaluate whether this means the students have successfully used the materials to
revise more effectively, and whether this skews the marking distribution in our favour.
9 CONCLUSIONS
We have taken techniques used for the production of distance learning modules and adapted
them for e-learning supplements to first year modules.
Animated tutorials and assessment questions are used to reinforce “difficult” material.
Animated illustrations are available for use within lectures.
Early indications are that students are only looking at the material as part of the revision
process and have not been motivated to look at the web-based material when the topic is
introduced in lectures. We need to encourage year tutors to promote the use of the e-learning
resource.
REFERENCES
1.
2.
3.
4.
J P Glew et al “Masters Level Training in Power Electronics Machines and Drives by
Flexible Learning” Proceedings E= TeM2 – Liege, Belgium, page II-45, 14 –16 March
2001.
Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations – Mathematics, Approved Specifications for
teaching from September 2000, OCR 2000.
Handbook for Developers of Online Course Materials (V1.3), Ufi, 2000.
P Cheng et al “Students’ Understanding of DC Circuit Theory at the start of their Y1
Course in Electrical and Electronic Engineering”, Draft internal report from the School of
Psychology, November 2002.