Work in progress — Higher-level-learning enhancements to online assignments in an electrical engineering linear systems course

Online assignments with mathematical analyses often replicate the handwritten problem-solving process. This paper addresses work-in-progress enhancements to online linear-systems modules that move past procedural solutions toward visualizations and exercises that promote deeper thinking. Enhancements address (1) plotting additions to zero-input response and unit-impulse response help files and (2) a new Fourier series module that targets coefficient comparisons rather than calculations. The time-domain enhancements focus on the visualization of signals that are solutions to the system equations, whereas the Fourier series additions focus on the roles that the coefficients play in determining signal shape. Upon completion of this enhanced module set, data from in-class examinations and out-of-class teaching/learning interviews will be compared to similar data from prior course offerings in an attempt to quantify the effect of these higher-level, conceptual additions on learning.