Acquiring a Holistic Picture: The 4Screens Web-Based Simulator Helping Students to Unify Behaviours of Electronic Systems

Engineering knowledge is complex. Therefore, discipline concepts cannot usually be introduced to students all at once. Normally, individual models and behaviours are taught in several courses, by different teaching staff and in separate years of study. This often results in inadequate comprehension of the disciplinepsilas ldquobig picturerdquo - that is, the interrelationship of various concepts, models and behaviours. Students studying electronic circuit design, for example, often overlook important aspects of linear circuit performance. Their knowledge of the effects of steady-state and transient responses requires improved unification. Simple computer-based simulators can significantly help students to establish well-developed holistic views of systems in many engineering disciplines. The 4Screens Web-based simulator has helped hundreds of students in becoming more proficient with electronics systems. It has been developed by a group of undergraduates to make the Four screens model easy to utilise. A student using the simulator can simultaneously display four important characteristics of an electronic system on a computer screen: its algebraic transfer function H(s), systempsilas pole-zero plot, its Bode plots of magnitude and phase, as well as a graph of its time response to a unit step. Questionnaire responses and test performances over the last seven years confirm the effectiveness of the Four screens and the 4Screens Web-based simulator in improving student learning.