Video observation as a tool to analyze and modify an electronics laboratory

Laboratories are an important part of science and engineering education, especially in the field of electronics. Yet very little research into the benefits of such labs to student learning exists. In particular, it is not well known what students do and, even more importantly, think during electronics laboratories. Therefore, we conducted a study based on video observation of second year students at 3 university campuses in Belgium during a traditional lab on first order RC filters. In this laboratory, students spent the majority of their time performing measurements, while very little time was spent processing or discussing the results. This in turn resulted in hardly any time spent talking about content knowledge. Based on those observations, a new laboratory was designed that includes a preparation with a virtual oscilloscope, a black box approach during the lab session itself, and a form of quick reporting at the end of the lab. This adjusted laboratory was evaluated using the same methodology and was more successful in the sense that the students spent less time gathering measurements and more time processing and analyzing them, resulting in more content-based discussion.