Computer-based laboratory tutorials

Persuading electronic engineering students (and perhaps those of other disciplines) to prepare in advance for their laboratory sessions appears to be a universal problem. Many turn up to the start of a laboratory session knowing only what topic is scheduled. They waste valuable time trying to understand the material and perform initial calculations. Exhortation to come prepared has limited effect. One approach which has achieved significant success is to provide the answers but to make students work for them. In the author´s computer-based tutorials, students are guided step-by-step through the laboratory script, relevant device parameters are extracted from data and calculations are performed using these typical figures. The authors discuss the success of these computer-based tutorials