Feature On the Use of Concept Inventories for Circuits and Systems Courses Tokunbo Ogunfunmi, Geoffrey L. Herman, and Mahmudur Rahman I. INTRODUCTION Abstract lectrical engineers have powered rapid innovation Concept inventories (CIs) are standardized assessment tools used and development in diverse fields: from banking to to evaluate a student’s conceptual understanding of important con- Eengineering to medicine to internet/information tech- cepts in a course. These CIs offer the engineering education com- nology and nanotechnologies. As the depth and breadth munity a reliable, accepted, and numerical means to assess and compare how well different teaching methods can help increase of topics in electrical engineering continuously expand, conceptual understanding. students must master the core subjects of circuits and Typically, the CIs consist of about 25 multiple-choice questions systems such as Electric Circuits, Digital Logic and covering core concepts in the course. These questions Signals and Systems. Critically, developing are designed to test conceptual knowledge rath- er than problem-solving ability as is typical deep and accurate conceptual under- of examination problems. CIs have been standing of core concepts has been developed for Circuits and Systems shown to accelerate learning (CAS) related courses such as and improve performance [1]. Electric Circuits, Digital Logic De- sign, Electronic Circuits, Signals While the field and technol- and Systems (both Continuous- ogy continues to advance, time and Discrete-time), etc. teaching and pedagogy In this paper, we provide has been slower to adapt. an overview of these CAS- related concept inventories. To continue fueling inno- These CIs have been de- vation and change, our veloped based on both re- teaching of core electri- search and years of experi- cal engineering topics ence teaching these basic courses. Many universities must adopt new, effective have adopted these tests and methods so that the next used them in their course offer- generation of engineers can ings. We report our experiences keep pace. with the use of some of these CAS- related CIs in our institutions and dis- Students are often able to cuss their effectiveness. We propose solve standard examination prob- possible extensions of these CIs and sug- lems while still possessing deep mis- gest ideas for other concept inventories in other conceptions or having only memorized CAS-related areas. Finally, we suggest ways in which IMAGE LICENSED BY the CAS community can get involved using these con- INGRAM PUBLISHING rote procedures [1–3]. This shallow learning cept inventories and hopefully improve their pedagogy renders students unable to solve novel or unfa- in these courses. miliar problems. However, students with deep, accurate conceptual understanding, possess more adaptive knowl- edge and are able to learn new material faster [1–2]. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCAS.2014.2333614 Concept inventories (CIs) are standardized assessment Date of publication: 20 August 2014 tools that evaluate a student’s conceptual understanding 12 IEEE CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS MAGAZINE 1531-636X/14©2014IEEE THIRD QUARTER 2014 of important concepts in a course [3]. These CIs offer the engagement” pedagogies [5]. Due to the impact of the engineering education community a reliable, accepted, FCI, concept inventory (CI) tests are being developed for and numerical means to assess and compare how well a number of science and engineering fields [6–23]. different teaching methods can help increase conceptual Generally, a CI is a short multiple-choice test, consist- understanding. ing of around 25 questions [11]. Questions are constructed We begin by giving an overview of three of these to force students to choose between the correct concep- CAS-related CIs. CIs have been developed for Circuits tion and a set of common misconceptions (distracters) and Systems (CAS) related courses such as Electric Cir- [3]. CIs are intentionally non-comprehensive, testing only cuits, Digital Logic Design, Electronic Circuits, Signals the most important or concepts in a course [12]. They and Systems (both Continuous-time and Discrete-time), are designed with the primary goal of measuring the effec- etc. These CIs have been developed based on both tiveness of an instructional method’s ability to remedy research and years of experience teaching these basic common misconceptions. They have also been used as courses. Many universities have adopted these tests diagnostic tests to identify and classify misconceptions and used them in their course offerings. and as placement exams for higher level courses. Later in this section, we present definition of a CI and some history of CIs. We then discuss education-related B. Education-Related Research Results research results on the effectiveness of the Concept on the Effectiveness of Concept Inventories Inventory. In Section II, we present detailed discussions Hake’s seminal pedagogical comparison study col- of three CAS-related Concept Inventories : Signals and lected FCI data from 62 courses [5]. He demonstrated Systems Concept Inventory (SSCI), Electric Circuits that interactive engagement teaching methods increase Concept Inventory (ECCI) and Digital Logic Concept conceptual learning beyond the level attained by tra- Inventory (DLCI). ditional lecture teaching methods [5]. Hake measured Experience or results of using these Concept Inven- the effectiveness of the courses by comparing the pre- tories in some universities are presented in Section III. course averages on the FCI referred to as Si with the In Section IV, we present some ideas for possible exten- post-course averages on the FCI referred to as Sf. These sions of these Concept Inventories; we propose adding averages were scaled from 0 to a maximum of 100. The more questions. In Section V, we suggest ideas for new average gain for a course is 12Gain [5]. concept inventories in other CAS-related courses like Electronic Devices, Electronic Circuits, VLSI Design and 12Gain =-SSfi. (1) Control Systems. In Section VI, we discuss how the IEEE CAS community worldwide can benefit from using these The maximum possible average gain for a course is Concept Inventories to hopefully improve their pedagogy. 12Gain max . We also suggest ways in which the CAS community can get involved developing concept inventories and finally, 12Gain max =-100 Si . (2) in Section VII, we present Summary and Conclusions. The normalized gain g is the ratio of the actual aver- A. What Is a Concept Inventory? age gain G to the maximum possible average gain In the last two decades, the teaching of introductory col- 12Gain max . lege physics has undergone a revolution that has been Gain SSfi- both motivated and guided by the Force Concept Inven- g //. Gain 100 - Si tory (FCI) [4]. This revolution was catalyzed by the evi- max dence that students who had excelled on conventional The normalized gain provides an estimate for how examinations failed to correctly answer the simple, con- much of the course material students learned that they ceptual questions on the FCI [3, 5]. This emphasis on did not understand prior to starting a course. Nor- conceptual understanding revealed how often students malized gain provides a way to compare the teaching passed courses through “rote memorization of iso- effectiveness of different courses independent of the lated fragments and by carrying out meaningless tasks students’ prior experience. The relative effectiveness of [3].” This failure exposed fundamental flaws in phys- instructional methods can be categorized into levels of ics instruction and led to the adoption of “interactive gain as shown in Table 1 [5]. Tokunbo Ogunfunmi is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA (e-mail: [email protected]). Geoffrey L. Herman is with Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, IL 61801, USA (e-mail: glherman@gmail. com). Mahmudur Rahman is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA (e-mail: [email protected]). THIRD QUARTER 2014 IEEE CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS MAGAZINE 13 Many of these CIs are hosted by the ciHUB (ciHUB. Table 1. org) for free and open use by both practitioners and Ratings for gains in conceptual understanding. researchers [23]. We present the documented use of High-g g $ 07. three widely adopted CIs to show the range of uses of Medium-g 07..$$g 03 CIs in engineering education. Low-g g 1 03. Paul Steif’s Concept Assessment Tool for Statics (CATS) is perhaps the most widely adopted engineer- ing concept inventory [24]. It has been the subject of Hake found that all 14 traditional courses g14T core theoretical research about the validity of concept ^ produced low-g learning gains regardless of instructor inventories [25], used as a research instrument to test qualifications, institution, and the age of the students. In the effectiveness of new pedagogies [26, 27], and used to contrast, 85% of the 48 interactive engagement courses better classify what concepts students struggle to learn g48IE produced medium-g gains. The gains for each in Statics [28]. The CATS instrument is unique among the ^ course are shown in Figure 1 [5]. Consequently, this CIs. While most CIs offer instructors a single metric con- study promoted the use of interactive engagement tech- cerning students’ conceptual understanding, the CATS niques in physics education and helped to establish that instrument