ACES: an interactive software platform for self-instruction and self-evaluation in automatic control systems

 This work presents an interactive-, menu-driven prototype software platform, namely Automatic Control Educational Software (ACES), for self-instruction and selfevaluation in automatic control systems. ACES is used for enriching instruction in automatic control at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The ACES platform includes theory with hyperlinks, a concept-graph, and a database with exercises. Students’ answers to exercises are evaluated automatically “on-line”. Furthermore exercises can be proposed automatically by ACES. An instructor /supervisor can support in person the learningeffort of a student, monitor the progress of a student and, also, tailor a course’s contents on the modular ACES platform. Two statistical hypothesis tests on both attitude questionnaires and student marks in the final (written) exam confirmed that the employment of ACES in the educational process can improve the performance of students in an automatic control course, whereas the attitude of students towards the course does not change significantly with the use of ACES. Index Terms  Control systems education, interactive educational software, HTML, selfinstruction, self-evaluation. 1 The authors are with the ECE Dept., Aristotle Univ. of Thessaloniki, 540 06 Thessaloniki, Greece.