Physics Teaching in Engineering Education PTEE 2005 Brno University of Technology, June 29 – July 1, 2005, Brno, Czech Republic ASSESSMENT OF THE US E OF COMPUTER BASED LEARNING (CBL) IN UNIVERSITY LABORATORIES P. SMYTH, D. BRABAZON, E. MCLOUGHLIN Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland. E-mail: philip.smyth2@mail.dcu.ie ___________________________________________________________________________ Lectured modules are often supplemented with laboratory experiments to aid the learning process. However, unless laboratory classes are sufficiently explicit, students can still find it difficult to visualise the concept being taught. Students are aided to learn by the more immediate response from this hands-on approach or similarly by the use of a preview model (virtual instrument). Learning from laboratory experiments can however be hindered, in that even after gathering the data from the experiment the student may still not know why they obtained this data or how it relates to the equations they have been presented with. Instrumented experimentation helps here in two ways. A virtual instrument of the experiment can be shown to the students before they start, in order that they understand what they have to do and why they are doing it. Secondly, the student, then with increased interest levels, can perform the experiment while the data is logged on the PC for analysis. This approach should help the student perform a more comprehensive analysis of the theory and then to gain a better understanding thereof [1]. In this research project Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) and instrumentation were generated for a selection of five undergraduate laboratory experiments. LabView was the software of choice for this work. The students’ performance was statistically analysied before and after the implementation of the Computer Based Learning (CBL) through their results (exam, continuous assessment, and multi-choice questionnaire), heart rate monitoring and video evidence. Keywords: Computer Based Learning (CBL), Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), Data Acquisition (DAQ), Undergraduate laboratories, Virtual Instrumentation, LabView 1. Introduction and Rationale There has always been an importance attached to having relevant effective experimentation as part of an undergraduate engineering course. However indications are that there has been a lower emphasis placed on such experimentation in undergraduate engineering curriculums over the previous decades [2]. One reason for this in the lack of resources available to faculties for laboratory upgrade and maintenance. Third level institutions however also have to keep pace with industry advancements in technology; so that once students leave these institutions they have the necessary skills to compete in a competitive business environment [3]. For example it common practice to for the results in experimental research and industrial investigations to have been obtained with automatically obtained data. Students must be familiar with this modern technology before leaving their courses of study. Virtual instrumentation, through the use of a Data Acquisition (DAQ), can recreate the equivalent of very expensive conventional laboratory instrumentation quite cheaply [1, 4]. Many institutions are not surprisingly embracing this technology and introducing it in to their respective laboratory modules. Happily this method of the teaching does not only benefit the faculty in terms of monetary cost. The use of virtual instrumentation and related Computer Based Learning (CBL) techniques also produces a reduced workload for teaching staff, a more user friendly interactive environment to study in and allows students to study remotely