Revitalizing Multidisciplinary Electricity Courses: A Comparative Study

All undergraduate students in the Technology Department at Northern Illinois University (NIU) are required to take electricity and electronics fundamentals courses. Rapidly changing technology necessitates the continual review and upgrade of these multidisciplinary courses so that they continue to serve both the student and industry in a relevant way. This paper describes changes needed to revitalize curricula as the results of 1) a self-assessment to ensure that the courses support the department curricula, 2) an investigation of similar programs instituted at other colleges and universities, 3) joint coordination with Rock Valley College (RVC) to streamline courses at both institutions, and 4) a survey with the department’s industrial advisory committees. Additionally, various instructional technologies that were specifically designed for teaching in a multimedia environment commonly referred to as “Smart Classrooms” are also presented and described in this paper. Finally, students’ surveys regarding the use of PowerPoint presentations, Blackboard or on-line courses, videocassette education product, computer simulation, as well as, lessons learned for future improvements are presented and discussed.