An interactive learning environment for assisting students in solving problems on designing of logic digital circuits by using Multiple Representations

In this paper, we propose a Web-based interactive learning environment with a knowledge-based assistant for helping undergraduate students in solving problems on designing digital circuits, focusing the relationship between Boolean algebra and Digital Logic. Particularly, we have addressed problem solving situations that essentially consist of mapping a logic expression into another equivalent, for example, the task of simplifying digital circuits. To do that, we have considered to operate on two symbolic linked representations: Boolean Algebra and Logic, connecting these two representations to a visual one with logic gates. This integration comes from the importance to involve students in three equivalent representations, permitting them to make connections between them. The learning environment contains a knowledge-based assistant that works on a collection of scenarios with several associated problems, where the students are placed in a problem-solving situation. To each problem, there are pedagogical resources needed to provide the students with feedback and knowledge support based on their performance and identified needs. Furthermore, there is an adaptive mechanism that is responsible for how problems should be sequenced or ordered, and even we have designed a switcher mechanism, which permits the students to change from one to another representation. We evaluate our approach by using scenarios and conclude that the system is feasible.