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“Are simulations or ‘real’ labs better for students’ learning?” is frequently discussed. Often positions in this debate are phrased in either or terms. In this study we report from a re-design of a lab where computer simulations were included together with experiments on real circuits in a transient response lab in an electric circuit theory course. In the first version of the lab students had difficulties doing the mathematical modeling of the experimentally measured graphs as it required students’ to link the time- and frequency domains as well as the object/event and theory/model worlds simultaneously. The inclusion of computer simulations as an addition to real experiments in the re-designed lab opened up for learning and enabled students to establish links that were impossible to access directly with real experiments. Still doing real experiments is important to secure students ability to make links between models and theories and the physical reality. This study demonstrates that synergetic learning effects can be achieved by a careful design using an insightful combination of real experiments and computer simulations. Hence, we propose that the question of “real” experiments or “virtual” labs using computer simulations are being best for students’ learning is not an either or question. Rather, it is a question of finding the right blend of carefully designed learning activities to achieve synergetic effects.

In this study we report from our experiences designing and re-designing a lab where engineering students studied transient response in electric circuits. In the first version of the lab students had difficulties doing the mathematical modeling of the experimentally measured graphs as it required students’ to link the time- and frequency domains as well as the object/event and theory/model worlds simultaneously. In the re-designed lab some computer simulations were included together with the original experiments on real circuits. The simulations opened up for learning and enabled students to establish links that are hard access directly with real experiments.Still doing real experiments is important to secure students ability to make links between models and theories and the physical reality. This study demonstrates that synergetic learning effects can be achieved by a careful design using an insightful combination of real experiments and computer simulations. Hence, we propose that the question of “real” experiments or “virtual” labs using computer simulations are best for students’ learning is not an either or question. Rather, it is a question of finding the right blend to achieve synergetic effects.

Design Science Research is a research approach that is widely used in information systems, IS, but also in other areas where the development of an artefact is parallel to the development of a theory or methodology for this development. In our research we have developed the model “the learning of a complex concept”, LCC, as a method to analyze learning outcomes, as well intended as experienced by students. In this paper we will show how this model was developed, and how design science research was used to develop a methodology that may now be used in the iterative design and analysis of learning outcomes. LCC was developed while designing teaching sequences in a course in electrical engineering. The model was derived as a means to analyse videorecordings of students’ actions, during lab-sessions in an electric circuit course in the first year of an electrical engineering program. The model has contributed to the understanding of learning but also to the design of learning materials, and design science research has improved the methodology. Can this become an especially appropriate methodology for analysis of CDIO-projects? What may be learned, and what is actually learned in a CDIO-project? How can “the learning of a complex concept” (LCC) be used in the iterative design process designing a CDIO-project?

BACKGROUND: Commonly in electric circuit theory courses, circuit laws are first introduced in the context of direct current (DC) electricity and first thereafter are alternating currents (AC) introduced. The extension of DC-theory to AC is quite easily done mathematically but is conceptually difficult for students. Engineering students have difficulties in understanding phase relationships and phasor representations in AC-electricity. Indeed, it has been suggested that phase should be seen as a threshold concept. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate if a re-designed introductory electric circuit course could improve students’ understanding of important concepts in AC-electricity. METHOD and COURSE DESIGN: The course was re-designed introducing AC and DC electricity simultaneously. DC was introduced as a special case of AC with requency equals zero. The re-designed course was taught for the first time during the spring semester 2014 and a new textbook was written. A conceptual test was developed and first administered in 2013 to serve as a baseline and in subsequent years to evaluate the revised course. In 2014 the students’ courses of action in selected lab-groups were video-recorded. RESULTS: In the first revision cycle many students had difficulties to complete the labs in time. Students revealed a mixed response towards the revised course and the results on the conceptual test showed neglible improvement. In the second cycle revisions the number tasks were reduced and focus was laid on tasks that were identified as most important for contributing to the development of student understanding. As a result the learning gain improved with an effect size (Cohen’s delta) of 0.56. Also the course and the textbook were very well appreciated. In the third cycle only small revisions are made. CONCLUSION: The results show that that AC-electricity can be taught concurrently with DC. However, two revisions cycles was needed which demonstrates that curriculum development needs a sustained effort over a considerable period of time with continuous revisions in light of gained experiences. In further revision we will continue to refine the labs and to develop appropriate interactive lecture demonstrations for the lectures and to develop the problems.

Producing structured, meaningful and useful descriptions (representations) of students’ learning in labs is not straightforward. Two possible approaches are compared here. Students’ courses of action in labs of an electric circuit course were video-recorded, then the activities during the labs were described and analysed using “the learning of a complex concept” (LCC) methodology. Conversations during the full lengths of the same labs were also transcribed verbatim. Subsequent analysis indicates that transcription offers a more detailed representation of the learning and interaction that occurred. However, it is considerably slower than LCC methodology, which can also represent learning in the full length of a lab in some detail. Furthermore, the latter gave a better overview of the analysed labs than transcription and more readily facilitated representation of both learning complexities and linking theory to practice. In conclusion, both methods can play valuable roles in engineering education research, depending on the questions addressed. VR 721-2011-5570

Modelling is an engineering activity commonly used by engineers, and can be used also in engineering education research (EER). The use of qualitative research methods have in EER not always been widely accepted but have recently gained more attention (Case & Light, 2011). There are, however, also qualitative research methods in engineering research that may be used in EER (Bernhard, in press). One such approach is design science research, where the object of research is the design process, i.e. the knowledge retrieved is not always knowledge about the phenomenon, the artefact, the design, but rather knowledge about the method used. This paper aims at researching the method used when deriving the model “the learning of a complex concept”, the LCC-model, which we developed while designing teaching sequences in a course in electrical engineering. VR 721-2011-5570

Inom såväl ingenjörs- som naturvetenskap är experimentell verksamhet central och olika instrumentella tekniker såsom oscilloskop, mikroskop, röntgenapparater och andra sensorer används som medierande verktyg för att erfara världen med. Laborationer är ett centralt inslag i undervisningen i dessa ämnen. Vi visar i våra studier att instrumentering och andra teknologier som används i samband med laborationer inte är neutrala tekniker. Sådana teknologier kan ha kognitivt värde genom att de erbjuder möjligheter till urskiljande och fokusering, det vill säga ger möjligheter att utforma laborationer där kritiska aspekter i ämnesinnehållet kan urskiljas vilket ger goda läranderesultat. Lärandet under en laboration måste därmed analyseras med hänsyn till såväl de fysiska verktyg (artefakter) såsom olika mätinstrument, mätsystem och system för bearbetning och visualisering av experimentella data som de symboliska verktyg i form av modeller, begrepp och representationer som studenter använder. Studier av lärande inom ingenjörsvetenskap och ”techno-science” som en materiell diskursiv praktik

A recurring question in science and engineering education is why the students do not link knowledge from theoretical classes to the real world met in laboratory courses. Mathematical models and visualisations are widely used in engineering and engineering education. Very often it is assumed that the students are familiar with the mathematical concepts used. These may be concepts taught in high school or at university level. One problem, though, is that many students have never or seldom applied their mathematical skills in other subjects, and it may be difficult for them to use their skills in a new context. Some concepts also seem to be "too difficult" to understand. One of these mathematical tools is to use Laplace Transforms to solve differential equations, and to use the derived functions to visualise transient responses in electric circuits, or control engineering. In many engineering programs at college level the application of the Laplace Transform is considered too difficult for the students to understand, but is it really, or does it depend on the teaching methods used? When applying mathematical concepts during lab work, and not teaching the mathematics and practical work in different sessions, and also using examples varied in a very systematic way, our research shows that the students approach the problem in a very different way. It shows that by developing tasks consequently according to the Theory of Variation, it is not impossible to apply the Laplace Transform already in the first year of an engineering program. The original aim of this thesis was to show: how students work with lab-tasks, especially concerning the goal to link theory to the real world how it is possible to change the ways students approach the task and thus their learning, by systematic changes in the lab-instructions During the spring 2002 students were video-recorded while working with labs in Electric Circuits. Their activity was analysed. Special focus was on what questions the students raised, and in what ways these questions were answered, and in what ways the answers were used in the further activities. This work informed the model ”learning of a complex concept”, which was used as well to analyse what students do during lab-work, and what teachers intend their students to learn. The model made it possible to see what changes in the lab-instructions that would facilitate students learning of the whole, to link theoretical models to the real world, through the labactivities. The aim of the thesis has thus become to develop a model: The learning of a complex concept show how this model can be used as well for analysis of the intended object of learning as students activities during lab-work, and thus the lived object of learning use the model in analysis of what changes in instruction that are critical for student learning. The model was used to change the instructions. The teacher interventions were included into the instructions in a systematic way, according to as well what questions that were raised by the students, as what questions that were not noticed, but expected by the teachers, as a means to form relations between theoretical aspects and measurement results. Also, problem solving sessions have been integrated into the lab sessions. Video recordings were also conducted during the spring 2003, when the new instructions were used. The students' activities were again analysed. A special focus of the thesis concerns the differences between the results from 2002 and 2003. The results are presented in four sections: Analysis of the students' questions and the teachers' answers during the lab-course 2002 Analysis of the links students need to make, the critical links for learning Analysis of the task structure before and after changes Analysis of the students' activities during the new course The thesis ends with a discussion of the conclusions which may be drawn about the possibilities to model and develop teaching sequences through research, especially concerning the aim to link theoretical models to the real world. En stående fråga som lärare i naturvetenskapliga och tekniska utbildningar ställer är varför elever och studenter inte kopplar samman kunskaper från teoretiska kursmoment med den verklighet som möts vid laborationerna. Ett vanligt syfte med laborationer är att åstadkomma länkar mellan teori och verklighet, men dessa uteblir ofta. Många gånger används avancerade matematiska modeller och grafiska representationer, vilka studenterna lärt sig i tidigare kurser, men de har sällan eller aldrig tillämpat dessa kunskaper i andra ämnen. En av dessa matematiska hjälpmedel är Laplacetransformen, som främst används för att lösa differentialekvationer, och åskådliggöra transienta förlopp i ellära eller reglerteknik. På många universitet anses Laplacetransformen numera för svår för studenterna på kortare ingenjörsutbildningar, och kurser eller kursmoment som kräver denna har strukits ut utbildningsplanerna. Men, är det för svårt, eller beror det bara på hur man presenterar Laplacetransformen? Genom att låta studenterna arbeta parallellt med matematiken och de laborativa momenten, under kombinerade lab-lektionspass, och inte vid separata lektioner och laborationer, samt genom att variera övningsexemplen på ett mycket systematiskt sätt, enligt variationsteorin, visar vår forskning att studenterna arbetar med uppgifterna på ett helt annat sätt än tidigare. Det visar sig inte längre vara omöjligt att tillämpa Laplacetransformen redan under första året på civilingenjörsutbildning inom elektroteknik. Ursprungliga syftet med avhandlingen var att visa hur studenter arbetar med laborationsuppgifter, speciellt i relation till målet att länka samman teori och verklighet hur man kan förändra studenternas aktivitet, och därmed studenternas lärande, genom att förändra laborationsinstruktionen på ett systematiskt sätt. Under våren 2002 videofilmades studenter som utförde laborationer i en kurs i elkretsteori. Deras aktivitet analyserades. Speciellt studerades vilka frågor studenterna ställde till lärarna, på vilket sätt dessa frågor besvarades, och på vilket sätt svaren användes i den fortsatta aktiviteten. Detta ledde fram till en modell för lärande av sammansatta begrepp, som kunde användas både för att analysera vad studenterna gör och vad lärarna förväntar sig att studenterna ska lära sig. Med hjälp av modellen blev det då möjligt att se vad som behövde ändra i instruktionerna för att studenterna lättare skulle kunna utföra de aktiviteter som krävs för att länka teori och verklighet. Syftet med avhandlingen är därmed att ta fram en modell för lärande av ett sammansatt begrepp visa hur denna modell kan användas för såväl analys av önskat lärandeobjekt, som av studenternas aktivitet under laborationer, och därmed det upplevda lärandeobjektet använda modellen för att analysera vilka förändringar som är kritiska för studenters lärande. Modellen användes för att förändra laborationsinstruktionerna. Lärarinterventionerna inkluderades i instruktionerna på ett systematiskt sätt utifrån dels vilka frågor som ställdes av studenterna, dels vilka frågor studenterna inte noterade, men som lärarna velat att studenterna skulle använda för att skapa relationer framför allt mellan teoretiska aspekter och mätresultat. Dessutom integrerades räkneövningar och laborationer. Videoinspelningar utfördes även våren 2003, då de nya instruktionerna användes. Även dessa analyserades med avseende på studenternas aktiviteter. Skillnader mellan resultaten från 2002 och 2003 står i fokus. Avhandlingens resultatdel består av: Analys av studenternas frågor och lärarnas svar under labkursen 2002 Analys av de länkar studenterna behöver skapa för att lära Analys av laborationsinstruktionerna före och efter förändringarna Analys av den laborationsaktivitet som blev resultatet av de nya instruktionerna, och vilket lärande som då blev möjligt Avhandlingen avlutas med en diskussion om de slutsatser som kan dras angående möjligheter att via forskning utveckla modeller av undervisningssekvenser för lärande där målet är att länka samman teori och verklighet

In both engineering and physics education, a common objective is that students should learn to use theories and models in order to understand the relation between theories and models, and objects and events, and to develop holistic, conceptual knowledge. During lab-work, students are expected to use, or learn to use, symbolic and physical tools (such as concepts, theories, models, representations, inscriptions, mathematics, instruments and devices) in order both to understand the phenomena being studied, and to develop the skills and abilities to use the tools themselves. We have earlier argued that this learning should be seen as the learning of a complex concept, i.e. a “concept” that makes up a holistic system of “single” interrelated “concepts” (i.e. a whole made up of interrelated parts). On the contrary, however, in education research it is common to investigate “misconceptions” of “single concepts”. In this paper we will show the power of analysing engineering students’ learning as the learning of a complex concept. In this model “single concepts” are illustrated as nodes or “islands” that may be connected by links, while the links that students actually make are represented by arrows. The nodes in our model are found by looking for “gaps” in the actions and conversations of students. A gap corre­sponds to a non-established link, and when a gap is filled and the students establish a relation between two nodes, this is represented by a link. The more links that are made, the more complete the knowledge. In this study we report an analysis of a sequence of labs about AC-electricity in an electric circuit theory course. In for example electric circuit theory the “concepts” of current, voltage and impedance are interdependent. Rather, the central physical phenomenon is “electricity” represented by Ohms law as a generalization of the current/voltage/impedance/frequency-relationship of a circuit or circuit element. The results show the learning of “electricity” as a complex concept with students’ knowledge becoming more complete. Furthermore, according to our analysis “entities” that in later labs were fused into one were separate in the earlier labs. For example in a later lab we could note that “the physical circuit” and “the circuit drawing” had fused into a single “real circuit”. Our results suggest that the learning of a complex concept first start with establishing more and more links. As links become well established, “entities” that have been separate fuse into a whole. Our model suggests a method for finding “learning difficulties” since these corresponds to “gaps” and non-established links. As teachers and experts in a field we can miss to uncover these since for us the ‘complex concept’ has become a conceptual whole and we may no longer be able to distinguish the parts in the complex. In line with the thesis of M. Holmberg we also argue that learning problems in electric circuit theory may be due to the common failure to appreciate that concepts are relations.

Education research regarding electricity and circuit theory have shown that students, even at university or college level, have difficulties in acquiring a functional understanding of and to distinguish between fundamental concepts such as current, voltage, energy and power. Student´s lack of qualitative understanding results in difficulties solving quantitative problems correctly. In this project an introductory course in electric circuit theory for electrical engineering students have been reformed using active engagement methods. Students take this course during the second semester in their first year. This course contains fundamental circuit theory for DC- and AC-circuits including matrix-methods and the j?-method, coupled circuits, some theory for three-phase AC-circuits in the first part of the course. In the second part of the course Fourier-series, Fourier-transforms and Laplace-transforms are introduced for treating stationary and non-stationary circuit problems. Some system theory and some feedback theory are also introduced in the second part of the course. In the first implementation of the reformed electric circuit a series of conceptual labs were developed. In a second implementation these conceptual labs were merged with the problem solving sessions into problem solving labs. We have videotaped students' actions and communication during these labs. The videorecordings from the labs dealing with AC-electricity and with transient response have been analysed in more detail. Our analysis show that the conceptual labs have been good at fostering conceptual understanding. By taken these conceptual labs one step further by merging problem solving into the labs and systematically develop the task using the theory of variation we show that we have been even more successful.