Advances in Engineering Education Animation Based Learning of Electronic Devices

Two-year college teachers face great difficulty when they teach the principle of operation of the bipolar junction transistor – a subject which forms the basis for electronics studies. The difficulty arises from both the complexity of the device and by the lack of adequate scientific background among the students. We, therefore, developed a unique learning unit based on computer animation that was tailored to the students’ background and qualitatively describes the processes occurring in the transistor. The current research examined the characteristics of the above learning among students at a leading Israeli two-year college. The research, which used quantitative instruments alongside qualitative ones, indicates a significant gap between the achievements of students who studied the subject of the transistor through animation and the achievements of their peers who learned it using static diagrams. Additionally, students who studied the subject through animation express significantly more positive attitudes towards electronics than their peers.