AC 2012-3980: INCREASING HANDS-ON LABORATORY EQUIPMENT EXPERIENCE VIA ROTATION OF NOTEBOOK RECORDING DUTIES

Instructors often seek pedagogical innovations that will ensure laboratory experiences are meaningful and instructive for all participating students. In this paper we share the results of one such approach, namely the weekly rotation of laboratory notebook duties among lab team members in an electronics course attended by junior electrical and computer engineering students. Our research has found that the requirement to have one team member complete a detailed laboratory notebook entry each week while the other performs the lab exercise, and then alternating those duties every other week, enhanced the hands-on experience and equipment competencies for all team members over the duration of the course. The authors used pre- and post-course surveys as well as laboratory notebook performance grades and in-lab observations to verify that lab competencies were enhanced for all students over the course of the semester. It was found that skills and confidence in 13 out of 14 lab competencies tested were greatly enhanced by the novel pedagogical improvement. These skills include troubleshooting, the use of oscilloscopes and taking critical measurements. The authors also surveyed students on 17 categories focusing on attitudes and preferences and perceptions of engagement. Post-course survey responses were largely more positive than the pre- course responses in roughly half of the categories. The remaining categories showed no significant change. Lab notebook grades also showed a distinct increase over the course of the semester, which indicated improvement in note-taking skills. Students were in 100% agreement via the post-course survey that on the lab days when they were not the note-taker they had most of the responsibility for operating the laboratory equipment and constructing the required circuits. It is this requirement that the authors believe was the most significant factor in the improvement of their hands-on laboratory skills.