Benefits of CAI for Teaching Electronics and Electrical Technology
The term "CAI", Computer Aided Instruction, is used in the broadest sense in this document. CAI will refer to any use of computers that interacts with students in any way in the educational process.
(1) CAI allows students to practice procedures as long as required to achieve defined competencies. This helps level the ground where students bring a wide range of native skills and educational backgrounds to a classroom. Students with a strong desire to learn electronics can succeed even with weak backgrounds when given the right learning tools and a supportive environment.
(2) Immediate feedback provided by CAI saves time and prevents learning the "wrong" concepts. In traditional training, students do substantial amounts of homework. Unfortunately, a student can do a number of problems entirely wrong on a homework assignment. The student would not be aware of his misconceptions until the teacher grades his homework and returns the paper to the student. Now, the student must not only learn the proper procedures but "unlearn" the wrong procedures as well.
(3) With CAI, students can determine their own weaknesses and concentrate efforts on overcoming those weaknesses before moving on more advanced concepts. All too often, students continue work on more advanced concepts while still holding misconceptions about the fundamentals of a topic. This leads to irritation and the feeling that electrical concepts are more complex than they are in reality. How many electronics technology students give up and drop out simply because the training system failed to diagnose misconceptions quickly?
(4) Good CAI materials reward students immediately for correct responses and behaviors. This encourages students to confidently move to more complex concepts. CAI can make learning interesting and exciting. What could be a more boring waste of time than practicing a procedure over and over that has already been mastered? On the other hand, some students are satisfied with only a cursory grasp for important fundamental concepts. This often leads to problems in that the student's understanding of a concept is not sufficient to enable her/him to progress smoothly to the next concept. CAI materials can help such students stay on a task or concept until it is fully mastered.
(5) A small but nevertheless important benefit of good CAI material is on-line immediate evaluation and grading of student work. Very few instructors and professors will miss the hours of mindlessly correcting and scoring student homework. More importantly, this aspect of CAI leaves the instructor more time to work with students on an individual basis.
All aspects being considered, CAI does not necessarily replace teachers, textbooks, classrooms, or laboratories. CAI is another aspect of training that harnesses the computer and makes it a tireless participant in the educational process. Perhaps the greatest benefit of CAI is giving the marginal student that small boost which leads to success.
CAI Materials Available for Electricity and Electronics Training
Tutorials
Tutorials are self-instructional programs or documents that present lessons on the computer screen in some combination of text and graphics. The quality and effectiveness of tutorials is highly variable. A key element in effectiveness is the level and quality of interactivity required of the learner. Some tutorials appear very attractive on the surface while requiring the learner to do almost nothing. Pretty graphics and carefully composed text is often developed with the buyer rather than the learner in mind. Students will quickly become bored and lose attention if the interaction required is weak or nonexistent. Some tutorials have interactivity that is limited to right or left arrows that only allow students to turn pages. Good interactivity should be more complex than an occasional multiple-choice question with a fixed answer. Another quality indicator in tutorials is intelligent loops and branches based on learner behavior. Good highly interactive tutorials are expensive. Tutorials require reasonable reading comprehension, self-discipline, and long attention spans to succeed. These traits are often missing in the students we are teaching.
Drill and Practice
Some educational experts do not hold drill and practice CAI programs in high esteem. However, in subjects, such as electricity and electronics, that require students to learn many mathematical analysis procedures, drill and practice CAI programs can be highly effective. The ability of a computed program to compose many variants of a circuit or problem can be used to expose students to more variety than is possible using textbooks alone. The immediate correction and grading is without question highly motivational to students. When carefully constructed, drill and practice programs can present students with challenges rather than chores. The motivational and learning value of immediately seeing "CORRECT!" appear on the computer screen after working a complex problem is enormous. Drill and practice CAI programs can be used to good advantage to reinforce procedures and processes taught in the classroom/textbook or through a computer based tutorial. Good drill and practice CAI should have use a random generator to create a variety of variations of each problem/situation presented to learners to make repeating a lesson worthwhile. To the extent possible, good drill and practice material should measure not only on a correct/incorrect basis but time on task or other meaningful measures of accomplishment.
Simulation
Simulation CAI programs can be a very powerful tool for teaching the operation of complex circuits and systems. Obtaining an instant answer to a "what if" question can generate interest and a "feel" for how a thing operates not quickly possible through mathematical analysis. Good simulation programs do have a learning curve. Student must use some time to learn to operate and interact with the simulation program that is often not as intuitive as tutorial programs and drill and practice programs. Simulation programs are generally combined circuit design and training tools. Therefore, the professor must design into his/her course situations and activities involving the simulation program in a useful instructional fashion. A few CAI programs combine simulation with drill and practice to produce easy to use virtual circuits that can be measured, tested and repaired on the computer screen.
Commercial Training Systems
Several major manufacturers of electronics training systems have "total training solutions" available. The systems consist of some mix of tutorial CAI software, drill and practice CAI software, possibly some simulation CAI software, laboratory trainers, and possibly electronic test equipment. Generally, the system is structured and programmed such that the software can't be used independent of the hardware. The advantage of such systems is obtaining an integrated complete training system at a single price. The professor or instructor should be able to walk in and start teaching without buying another item. Content and curriculum is difficult to alter and generally can be changed substantially only by the system's original manufacturer.
Additional Considerations
The choice of the CAI software selection by a specific training program depends on many factors beyond the analysis of general benefits and projected positive outcomes. The professor's or instructor's teaching style and opinions must be taken into consideration when it is possible. Instructors rarely use instructional materials unless they personally feel that the material has educational merit. A teacher who believes strongly in the value of a training aid, CAI or otherwise, will tend to work vigorously to obtain good results from the material. Student opinions often reflect teacher assessments of the value of instructional aids, CAI or otherwise. Cost is also a driving force in many instances. The cost for adding CAI to an electricity or electronics training program can be as little as a few dollars per student up to ten thousand dollars or more per training station. The least expensive CAI materials are supplemental training software programs that reinforce the existing classroom/textbook/laboratory training.
Some of the many publishers of electronics training software are listed below.
DesignWare Inc.
ETCAI Products
National Instruments
eLabtronics
A web search for "educational software for electronics" will produce a number of references to publishers of a variety of CAI training materials for electricity and electronics training. The materials vary greatly in cost and scope.
