Work in progress - testing & learning the fundamentals of DC circuit analysis

A database platform accessible on the Internet is used to provide the engineering community testing and learning opportunities in DC nodal and mesh analyses. The testing modules are complete problems asking learners to calculate node voltages and mesh currents for a variety of circuits. The learning portion is provided through a series of interactive help topics, some of which are specific to the module at hand, others are expository in nature, covering broader circuit concepts. While students can test their knowledge and skill levels in DC circuit analysis at http://gaia.ecs.csus.edu/-jpforms/NSF/, instructors can monitor (with administrative privileges) their students´ performances, as well as compare those to performances from students enrolled at other universities. Assessment results will be provided from a small pilot group of students enrolled during the fall 2003 semester. These will include performance data, as well as contextual examples aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of this work.