Enhanced Radio Lab Experience Using ePortfolios

Historically, the technical writing portion of our electrical engineering program’s required core course RF Systems Laboratory has been fulfilled using bi-weekly memos. Now, however, the lab utilizes eportfolios to fulfill the technical writing requirement. The primary goal of the decision to switch from memos to eportfolios was to improve the learning outcomes of the students by encouraging them to use reflective writing to reinforce what they learned in the lab. Additionally, the eportfolio format allows the students to express their findings more creatively, with fewer boundaries and more opportunity to use multiple types of media. Background – the radio lab The RF Systems Laboratory is a required 1 credit hour junior-level course for the Electrical Engineering program at Auburn University [1]. Students simulate, breadboard, and measure the performance of a variety of AM radio building blocks (various amplifiers, detectors, etc.) on their way towards building a functional radio. The course has a common Monday lecture followed by a 2-hour lab section meeting later in the week. It is not tied to a specific class; it draws from and integrates concepts from several electrical engineering courses. An advantage to this approach is that students can more readily appreciate the interrelation between electrical engineering subdisciplines [2]. Table 1 shows the course timeline. The first part of the course, through week 8, consists of studying and assembling the different components that make up a single-station AM radio as shown in Figure 1. The open source circuit simulation tool LTspice is used in the study of each functional block prior to bread-boarding, usually as part of a prelab assignment. For instance, Figure 2(a) shows the LTspice circuit schematic for a two stage audio amplifier, while Figure 2(b) shows the same circuit after a student constructs it on their breadboard. Students begin working in teams of two or three students when designing and building the antenna. This is good practice for them as the team must then work together for the heterodyne version of the radio, and for the design project to enhance their radio. After successful completion of this simple version of the radio, students proceed in weeks 9-10 Table 1: RF Systems Lab Course Timeline Week Topic 1 Course introduction, basic AM radio operations, test and measurement 2 Common emitter amplifier 3-4 Audio amplifiers 5 AM detectors 6-7 RF amplifiers and overall radio 8 Antennas 9-10 Heterodyne radio 11-13 Radio enhancement project Figure 1: Block diagram of a generic single station AM radio with a more advanced heterodyne version of their radio which would allow tuning for different stations. Finally, weeks 11-12 are devoted to a team project to improve the radio. Students are free to select their own project. Notable recent projects include design of a better audio amplifier to drive larger speakers, a bass/treble controller, and a remote controller for the radio. In addition to the technical content, the core laboratories are also tasked with helping to develop our students’ teaming and communications skills (both oral and written). One of the objectives of the RF Systems Laboratory is to develop the students’ writing ability. Historically, this has been accomplished by requiring bi-weekly technical memos. The course syllabus described the memo requirement this way: (a) (b) Figure 2: (a) LTspice circuit schematic of a two stage audio amp, (b) breadboarded version of the audio amp (picture is from a student’s eportfolio). Your memo will most often pertain to your lab experience and lecture experience, although homing in on a particularly interesting aspect of lab or radio design is also fair game. Occasionally there will be specific topics you are to write about. Your one-page typed memo (space and a half, 12 point times font) is due at the beginning of the Monday lecture session, and is to be placed in the folder appropriate for your lab section. The memo will be graded based on spelling, grammar and content. In 2012 Auburn University began encouraging eportfolios across campus as part of its Quality Enhancement Plan. A description of eportfolios and its educational justification is given in the next section. Thus, in support of the university’s plan, and with the hope and anticipation of providing a better learning experience for our students, we decided to replace the RF Systems Laboratory technical memos with eportfolios as our method to develop the writing ability of the students. Supporting Theory The use of eportfolios in higher education has become increasingly common. Some estimates say that more than 50% of college students in the United States have used eportfolios in some fashion [3]. While eportfolio use is common, the purposes for eportfolio implementation vary widely. Purposes generally fall into one of three broad categories: assessment, learning, and career/professional (though in practice these purposes often overlap). Some universities have large scale eportfolio initiatives to assess general education programs [4,5], but learning eportfolios are also widely used on many campuses in the context of a single course [6]. The hallmark of the eportfolio is the critical reflection it enables [7-9]. ePortfolios invite, if not require, students to reconsider and synthesize their learning experiences and explain the significance of those learning experiences to an audience (sometimes inside a course, sometimes outside). The process of creating an eportfolio also fosters deep learning, which is linked to critical reflection [10]. Reflective writing, then, is a key element in the process of creating an eportfolio. In addition to reflective writing, students must also think critically to determine what to include in the eportfolio (artifacts and experiences) and how to organize what they include so that the portfolio makes a curated, coherent argument. ePortfolios are widely used in design fields as wells as in nursing and education programs, but they are also present in engineering programs. Teacher-researchers in engineering have explored how eportfolios aid graduate students’ professional identity development [11,12] as well as how eportfolios promote lifelong learning among engineering students [13]. ePortfolios, regardless of the field in which they are used, are strongly linked to lifelong learning [14]. Implementation The first time the eportfolios were implemented in the RF Systems Laboratory was the Fall 2015 semester. Students were given the option to participate in the eportfolio trial or write the technical memos as was done in previous semesters. Of the 35 students in the class, 14 decided to participate in the eportfolio option. The first task given to the students was to create the basic frame for their eportfolio so that they could modify and add to it continually through the semester. There are several free platforms available online for students to create eportfolios. For this iteration, the students used the free platform Wix [15]. The first submission included an “about me” portion, a home page, and a section where students could add their comments and reflections on the labs. An example eportfolio was created by the teaching assistants (TAs), and the students were also given a link to the university’s sample eportfolio page [16] hosted by the Office of University Writing. Students were then required to submit a link to their eportfolio on Canvas [17] (our university’s learning management system) so that the teaching assistants could grade and provide feedback on their work. The eportfolios were graded on technical content, reflective writing, visual literacy, use of media, and writing mechanics. The students were responsible for submitting updated websites after every two lab topics were covered. Upon completion of the lab and final project presentation, a final eportfolio update was due. After each submission, the teaching assistants provided feedback on how the students could improve their work. To maintain grading consistency, the TAs team-graded the initial eportfolio submission. Further submissions were graded by a single TA to maintain consistent grading across sections. The TAs took turns with this. The final submission was again team-graded. Finally, at the end of the course the students were anonymously polled about their eportfolio experience. The survey questions and responses are provided in appendix A. Since this was an initial foray into the implementation of eportfolios in the lab, we did not know what to expect. We discovered that the benefits of eportfolio use fell into four categories: 1. Student Learning 2. Creativity 3. Student Satisfaction 4. Pedagogical Insight Student Learning A primary goal of the eportfolio is to promote student learning. This was demonstrated both from observation and from survey results. The TAs noted that the students participating in the eportfolio option demonstrated enhanced learning of material from the lab versus the students that continued with the standard memo format. This was determined based on the performance in lab along with the performance on the pre-lab assignments. Additionally, students that participated in the eportfolio option were more engaged in class and asked more relevant questions about the lab material. Much of the feedback provided by the TAs was then integrated into the students’ eportfolio updates. This was also detailed when students were encouraged to incorporate more reflective writing as they attempted to describe the relationship between this lab and other courses. At the end of the semester students that volunteered to participate in the eportfolio option were asked to complete an optional, anonymous survey about their experience (see Appendix A). Seventy-five percent of the students believed creating the eportfolio helped them to better understand the course material. Several students stated that writing about what they did and in