Online Delivery of Electrical Engineering Laboratory Courses

Abstract

He has been a full-time faculty member in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at MSU since Aug. 1994 and currently serves as the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies. He teaches courses in both analog and digital electronic circuit design and instrumentation. Dr. Astatke has more than 10 years of experience in the development and delivery of synchronous and asynchronous web-based ECE courses in the USA and abroad. He is the recipient of the 2012 ASEE Mid-Atlantic Section's Distinguished Teaching Award.

Experience with Abrupt Transition to Remote Teaching of Embedded Systems

“…Not having enough hardware to distribute to students individually and wanting to retain as many hardware interactions as possible (it is one of the few hardware-based courses at the faculty), we decided to set up remote access to hardware in the lab. Previous works using remote hardware access [2,12] were almost exclusively based on complex custom-made platforms developed in-house over the years. We aimed for a much simpler solution that could be set up quickly and would require low maintenance while allowing us to make as few changes to the course as possible (compared to the in-person teaching).…”

COVID-19's Impact on on ECE Communities Served by Minority Serving Institutions

“…Spring 2020 data was used to document how faculty responded immediately to the crisis, whereas spring 2021 data is being used to verify the previous information and to validate themes and perspectives focused on identifying barriers, opportunities, sources of information, and collaborations, impacting the quality of the student learning experience and research activities done virtually and/or in hybrid and multiple platforms. As faculty respond to changes in their educational philosophy based on best practices for students learning, questions need to be raised as to what, if any, methodologies will be continued after universities return to on campus learning [1,2,3].…”

“…In the present effort, a similar approach is followed. The treatment is now distance delivery and learning and enabling technology includes tools for online meetings, forums, homework and quizzes [2].…”

“…It has been working to build an organization that can enable the participating faculty, students and staff to engage fully in the national education and research enterprise. The COVID-19 Pandemic has put everyone at its partner institutions under unprecedented stress as campus operations moved online [1,2]. It was essential that the experiences of the minority communities served be captured, especially during the critical spring 2020 semester when the move to distance delivery of classes was necessary [1].…”

“…The great distance learning experiment is sweeping the nation's colleges and universities and wreaking havoc with their ability to deliver a high-quality learning experience for their students [1,2,3]. The MSIs who make up the organization are uniquely positioned to rapidly capture the experiences of minority engineering students and their instructors using the tools and approaches from their previous educational project.…”