ELEG 1003-introduction to electrical engineering: an approach to motivate and teach EE Freshmen

Teaching freshmen students, particularly in engineering, has and continues to be the subject of numerous papers. This paper describes another approach to introduce freshmen students to electrical engineering (EE). This is done through the freshman course-ELEG 1003: Introduction to EE-which has been taught since Fall 1995 in the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, USA. The main goals of this course are: (1) teaching problem-solving skills; (2) teaching the required knowledge in complex numbers and matrix operations; (3) introducing PSpice and Matlab(R); (4) starting to develop communication skills; (5) engaging freshmen in group work; (6) illustrating the different areas of EE; (7) increasing freshman motivations for a career in EE; (8) imparting to the freshmen a sense of belonging to the Department; and finally (9) improving student retention rates (if possible). The paper addresses how these ambitious goals are accomplished throughout this one-semester freshman course