Educational Applets for active learning in properties of electronic materials

The traditional lecturer-driven classroom is giving way to a new more active environment, where students have access to a variety of multimedia course materials. The authors created several Java applets (http://www.collage.soe.ucsc.edu) that present concepts related to properties of materials in both active and passive styles. The authors evaluated the use of the applets in a classroom setting, considering student learning preferences, background profiles, and applet preferences.