69 © Institution of Engineers Australia, 2012 * Paper D12-004 submitted 23/04/12; accepted for publication after review and revision 16/07/12. † Corresponding author A/Prof Alexander Mazzolini can be contacted at amazzolini@swin.edu.au. Using interactive lecture demonstrations to improve conceptual understanding of resonance in an electronics course * AP Mazzolini † , S Daniel and T Edwards Faculty of Engineering & Industrial Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria ABSTRACT: Engaging students in a large class environment is dificult. A “blended learning” strategy, which incorporates both traditional lecture instruction followed by active learning instruction, can help. Active learning in this study consisted of a small number of interactive lecture demonstrations (ILDs) that incorporated a “predict, observe, discuss, synthesise” learning cycle. This blended learning strategy was more effective than traditional lectures alone in overcoming students’ conceptual dificulties. The learning gains in this study were assessed by testing the conceptual understanding of students after 8 hours of traditional instruction, but before any ILD instruction (via a pre-test) and after an additional 2 hours of ILD instruction (via a post-test). The average gain in the post-test score compared to the pre-test score for “complete responders” (ie. the students who participated in all tests and all active learning ILD activities) was very encouraging and statistically signiicant. KEYWORDS: Active learning; AC circuits; resonance; interactive lecture demonstration; electronics. REFERENCE: Mazzolini, A. P., Daniel, S. & Edwards, T. 2012, “Using interactive lecture demonstrations to improve conceptual understanding of resonance in an electronics course”, Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 69-88, http://dx.doi.org/10.7158/D12-004.2012.18.1. 1 INTRODUCTION Teaching an introductory electronics course can be very challenging as students often have deep misconceptions concerning the operation of basic electric circuits. Many of these misconceptions are well documented in the literature (McDermott & Shaffer, 1992; Cohen et al, 1983; Andre & Ding, 1991; Engelhardt & Beichner, 2004; Sencar et al, 200l; Getty, 2009) and teaching staff can make special efforts to try and overcome these misconceptions. Electronics often also contains many more advanced topics and again it appears that many students have signiicant conceptual dificulties when trying to understand these topics (Mazzolini et al, 2010; Itaketo, 2010; Carstensen & Bernhard, 2009; Rover et al, 1999; Thomassian & Desai, 2008; Ayu et al, 2009). This study explores a simple learning strategy to help address some of these “advanced” conceptual dificulties. At Swinburne University of Technology (Melbourne, Victoria), the introductory electronics course is taught across many engineering and science programs. This results in fairly large lecture groups each semester, typically 100 to 200 students. This electronics course covers a wide arrange of subject areas (DC Circuits, Electromagnetism, AC Circuits, Amplification and Digital Electronics), and at a varying level of complexity ranging from simple topics such as Ohm’s Law and series/parallel resistor circuits, to more advanced topics such as AC resonance and Operational Ampliiers. Academics teaching into this course have observed that many of the students appear to have signiicant dificulties in understanding concepts in many areas, including Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, Vol 18 No 1