Assessment of an Introduction to Electrical Engineering Laboratory Course

A new Sophomore-level course, entitled “Introduction to Electrical Engineering Laboratory,” was developed at a medium-sized, Midwestern, private institution. The course was taught for the first time in the Fall semester of 2015, and again in the Fall of 2016. It is a required course for students majoring in both electrical engineering and computer engineering. The second offering incorporated a preand postcourse assessment of the content and student perceptions of their knowledge of the content areas. This two-credit course comprises one 50-minute lecture and one three-hour laboratory session per week. There are ten laboratory sessions incorporating nine separate topics of interest to engineers and scientists, with an emphasis on topics to be seen in later EE courses. The goals of the course are to a) foster an appreciation for the importance of electrical engineering at the level of modern civilization, b) have students understand simple circuits and be able to reason through electrical systems, c) introduce students to conceptually advanced material, such as frequency domain, in preparation for future courses, and d) develop a strong foundation in electronic lab bench skills. The results of the pre-and post-survey assessment found that students increased their knowledge and confidence in course material. There were no statistically significant differences between male and female students, lower and upper division students, nor engineering discipline.