Session S1A 978-1-4244-1970-8/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE October 22 – 25, 2008, Saratoga Springs, NY 38 th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference S1A-21 Use of EAC in Learning Digital Systems Marta Prim, Joan Oliver, and Vicenç Soler Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, marta.prim@uab.es, joan.oliver@uab.es, vicenc.soler@uab.es Abstract - In electronic circuit subjects it is very important that students practice their exercise with analysis and synthesis of circuits in order to acquire knowledge, skill and competences. Usually, students are poorly motivated and thus problems’ classes get reduced to the professor giving the solution to the set problems. Students’ only mission is then to copy the information from the blackboard without having to study, develop or think about the problem. In this paper, we present the use of an interactive docent tool, Educlick, which has been adapted to these problems’ classes [1-3]. Educlick is based on the use of electronic answer remote controls (clickers). The classes are wholly directed. The experience is done in the subject of Digital Systems of Computer Science at the Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona. The objective is to increment students’ participation in class and thus improve their learning of the design of combinational and sequential digital systems. Index Terms – Interactive docent tool, Digital Systems learning, Problems’ class. INTRODUCTION In this paper, we describe a new methodology applied to solving in-class problems. The aim is to increase the student’s participation and motivation, and, consequently, the acquisition of knowledge and skill in digital systems. The context in which we develop our teaching is the Technical Engineering in Computer Science at the Escola d'Informàtica Universitària of the Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona. Digital Systems is a compulsory second-year subject, which has around 180 students. This subject consists of 2 practical and 4 theoretical credits. To pass the practical credits students are required to attend lab sessions and to carry out some practical exercises. The 4 theoretical credits are divided into 3 credits for the theoretical classes and 1 credit for the problems’ classes. In the theoretical classes, we present the background of the design of combinational and sequential digital circuits whereas the problems’ classes are focused on the solving of a list of pre- set exercises related to the topic. The main problem was up to now that students did not work on the set exercises before attending class. They came to class just waiting for the professor to give the solution to the exercises. Obviously this is not what the exercises are designed for. Failing to acquire enough practice in the problems’ class they are apt to make mistakes when they implement physically the circuit, with the obvious and consequent non-functionality. To tackle this situation and in our case in particular, we have considered different ways to encourage students to get more involved in this subject. At the moment, there is one way on which we are working: to introduce interactivity in the problems’ classes. In order to do so, the methodology used in class in the previous years had to be changed. The considered option is that the student carries out exercises in the lecture hall, individually or in group, and chooses one of the solutions presented through a PowerPoint slide by means of the use of the electronic answer remote controls (EAC’s). With that, students are more interested, pay more attention and improve their learning because they study and think about the exercise and get to know their weak points in the subject. At the same time, it also allows us to test the base knowledge of the students and to assess the learning following the input. This article is structured in 5 sections. The first section is this introduction, which describes the matter which is dealt with in this paper. In the second section we introduce the EAC’s used as an interactive docent tool. The third section details the methodology applied in this 2007-2008 academic year in the problems’ classes. In the following section, we present the evaluation and the results obtained by applying the interactivity method. Finally, its conclusions are presented. ELECTRONIC ANSWER REMOTE CONTROLS The interactive system used in the problems’ classes of the subject of Digital Systems consists of: • Software compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint that allows introducing active controls in the designed slides. • Radio frequency remote controls. • A receiver plugged into the computer USB, with which the electronic answer remote control is synchronized by radio frequency. All the information generated in each problems’ class is saved in a database. From this, the professor can select which data and report format is needed and, simply, print off a report or export it to Microsoft Excel, where the data can be consulted and/or manipulated to inform the students about the results obtained in every session. This allows the student to know their progress and to increase his/her study