Towards a framework for the design and development of a system for practical education in electrical engineering

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: How to educate undergraduate students in the practical aspects of engineering isa complex problem. To address it requires both a technical solution (referring tothe equipment itself) as well as a study of education theory.The ability to apply learned scienti c knowledge in a practical way is a keytenet of engineering. Experiments are one of the principle ways whereby studentslearn to consolidate theory and practice. Practicals provide university studentswith experimenting opportunities which help to cement their theoretical knowledgeas well as allowing them to gain experience working with real-world systems.However, if the equipment and systems in the laboratories are not well designed,or not designed for educational purposes, then the student becomes overwhelmedby it. In the end they learn how to use the experimental set-up itself, rather thanwhat they are supposed to investigate with it.When we developed new practical assignments for anal year module, we realisedthat the current equipment was indeed failing the students. To address thiswerst considered the use of commercially available solutions. But the equipmentwas not able to meet our requirements | mainly because the equipment was notdesigned for the education environment, had proprietary interfaces and was expensive.We then set about investigating the possibility of designing a new systemfor engineering practical education that could better address the requirements ofthe laboratory, as well as overcome the limitations of the commercial equipment.We soon realised the complexity of such a proposal. Its successful executionwould require a knowledge of engineering as well as of many otherelds. Such adevelopment would also require a detailed knowledge of the institution where thesystem is to be developed and used. But most signi cantly, the project is simplytoo complex for a single researcher or research group to complete alone; and norshould they. This system can have a very positive impact on both practical teachingas well as general research development, and it is only by sharing ownershipthat the project will progress beyond the most basic system.To realise such a large shared project, and to make it sustainable, requires adetailed development framework | that would consolidate all the various requirements,provide a clear development road map and award researchers the freedom to innovate.This exploratory study is aimed at the development of such a framework. Westart by investigating current literature surrounding engineering education andlaboratory systems development. We consider the current state of practical engineeringat our university. (Our proposed method can also be used for otherstudies like this.) Furthermore, we advocate the continued development of engineeringeducation research, presenting this study as a starting point to introducetheeld to engineering researchers.To develop requirements for the equipment itself, as well as to understand thelimitations and challenges of its development, we designed three prototypes. Weused solar photovoltaic practicals as an example case to limit the scope of theprototypes and help focus our endeavours.Since this is an exploratory study there is a lot of potential for future research.However, we feel that development of the framework itself should take priority asit is the key towards opening development to the broader academic community.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University