Active learning courseware development - II

Abstract

What is Active Learning Laboratory? Active mean that to encourage someone who work out the output voluntarily. Learning means that to get and know some knowledge. Laboratory is a place for perform some testing and work for the experiment result. As above said that Active Learning Laboratories can be defined as a place where have a system for encouraging someone who get and know some knowledge base on the experiment result voluntarily. Courseware, is a software that using for teaching in a laboratory. In the laboratory, most of the experiment sessions have their own experiment material like the lab sheet, lab user manual, and reference information. Students shall receive the laboratory material before for preparing the laboratory session. Since the computer is being growth up and internet being popular. Actually, courseware is not a new idea that not just developed within last few years. Actually, it’s development for many years ago. One of the most command courseware is the networking courses that offer by CISCO systems. During the course or laboratory course, student using the interactive software to learn about the router setting, networking theory, Since their course is using a software simulating routers or network equipments, the course can be much easier to become popular, It’s because the training centre or the laboratory is not need to buy the real hardware on the networking equipments. At the same time, that course can be offered at any simple computer room. In the past, laboratory sheet shall prepare and disturb to students before laboratory started. The style of the laboratory sheet is just like a simple report, with many steps and statement on it. When students receive such document, they may feel the laboratory session is a complicated, bored session or just used it for passing the course, how can make the laboratory session much funny and interesting? And let them get interesting on learning the knowledge from the laboratory session? What is the evolution direction of the experiment session being an effective learning course? Before we go deep inside this problem, we may take a quick look on our EE laboratory. Since EE Department’s laboratories are developed for a quit long period, we may treat is a traditional laboratory. Laboratory is showing a little bit old and old equipments were found in this laboratory as well. Since this laboratory is used for some basic electronic courses, the oscilloscope, function generator were found from the laboratory. Since this is an EE department, the simplest testing shall be started on “V=IR.” Base on this fundamental electrical theory, Voltage (V) = Current (I) x Resistor (R) and Power (W) = Voltage (V) x Current (I) shall be checked and carried out the experiment at the basic starting laboratory session. Student shall start to learn the relationship on the parameter of Voltage, Current, Resistor and Power. Then what type of equipments has to be used? For the simply V-I measurement, DC power supply, voltage meter, current meter or ohm meter are the base requirement. For higher level experiment session, some equipment like function generation, oscilloscope, and spectrum analyser shall be need. However, those equipments are seems to be an old model and used for long time ago. Why the laboratory does not replace the old equipments or provide some new type equipments? As the EDA laboratory that located at purple P1406, it shows a much modern laboratory with a wonder computer set-up. It may be a great idea if we can merge both two laboratories together. Then a modern electronic experiment laboratory had born. Is it only a Dream?