Productive Learning for Students in Assessed Coursework of Circuit Construction and Demonstration Video Production

Abstract

Assessed coursework of electronic circuit construction and demonstration video production is used in a senior undergraduate course on communication electronics. While the assessment carries only 20% towards the total marks, students are motivated for learning their chosen interested circuit in a deeper and productive way - they are required to exercise their technical knowledge and understanding to produce intellectual materials to communicate their work to peers in the same technical areas. The materials they produce are a 2-page concise circuit design report, a few self-explanatory slides, and most importantly a 3-minute video to explain and demonstrate their constructed circuits as well as the testing and measurement results. By working in pairs, they need to discuss and agree on the circuit design, implementation, and the arrangements of video production. The group work not only consolidate their technical knowledge but also help develop other professional skills required in the engineering fields: negotiation, decision making, task management etc. Assessment statistics are presented to show the successes of this teaching and learning practice. The approach has been practiced in a 2-hour/week course over the past four years with class sizes from 23 to 84 students.