WIP: Complementary Teaching Modes to Promote Design Self-Efficacy

This work-in-progress (WIP), innovative-practice paper describes the piloting of laboratory experiments that emulate real-world engineering design practices during the instruction of a sophomore-level introductory circuits course. Results reflect positively on design self-efficacy and suggest promise for future work. Introductory electronic circuits courses have historically been taught within an analytical framework. Recent design-based pedagogical changes, i.e., the incorporation of makerspaces, simulations, and design-oriented assignments, to Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) curricula have shown the benefits of multi-modal approaches to instruction. The research suggests that student motivation, satisfaction, and performance are enhanced through the application of design-based learning challenges. The authors believe that active and experiential learning opportunities can be coupled with computational tools and traditional instruction to provide a range of frameworks that serve different types of learners. As a part of this study, students spent three hours per week in a makerspace where they completed twelve re-designed laboratory assignments with integrated simulation exercises and design challenges. Students who completed the course before and after implementing these changes were surveyed to gauge the influence that the lab changes have on their self-efficacy with course material and circuit design. Student responses to Likert-scale questions, tested with the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Sums test, show significant improvements in student confidence with simulation and computational tools and with utilizing computer translational and scalable matrix-solving techniques for linear circuits. In addition, while students expressed the difficulty of working on open-ended, independent learning challenges, their reflection responses also indicated the value of the experience. This pilot study serves as a basis for further investigation into how different modalities may complement one another and lead to independent concept application and design self-efficacy in young engineers.