Novel technology for electronics instruction - An electronics studio

Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus recently received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Advanced Technology Education Program, or ATE grant, targeted for curriculum development. The program described in this paper is the development of an "eStudio", to facilitate effective course delivery and cooperative learning in both the BS and AAS programs. The age-old format of separating lecture and lab in Engineering and Technology curricula has many drawbacks given scheduling and classroom constraints. With the shift toward a more non-traditional student population, students are seeking courses taught in a streamlined fashion, preferring to complete weekly meetings in one day, if possible. The compressed format makes it even more imperative to diversify the experience in the classroom in order to heighten motivation, and facilitate learning. The eStudio (See Figure 1), is a very new project within the department. The goals for the program are multifaceted and include promoting collaboration among the students, facilitating continuous improvement of the curriculum, and providing for distance learning. The biggest hurdles to clear are limited space, the diverse educational objectives among the faculty, and a limited budget. Though the eStudio has not been used long enough to provide concrete data regarding its impact, some obvious results early on include a greater presence of students in the lab during non-class hours and a heightened interest in collaborating with fellow students and faculty. To get a greater sense of impact on student learning, the department is collecting data regarding the use of the lab, the number of projects and the type of projects generated per semester as a result of the lab, as well as the progress of our distance learning efforts. We expect to be able to furnish more empirical data regarding these findings within the first two to three semesters of its use.