Introducing Analysis of Experiments in Electrical Machines Laboratory

The scope of the Conceive, Design, Implement, and Operate (CDIO) framework is to help the learner attain higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) in their courses. But most of the theory and practical courses offered in academic institutions are of a low-order thinking level. In outcome-based teaching and learning (OBTL), in order to achieve the graduate attribute of critical thinking, the learner needs to design and do the experiment and also be able to analyze and provide inferences about the data. Most laboratory courses offered in engineering colleges have an application level. To improve the course outcome from apply to analyze level, integrating a component of experiment analysis is required in the laboratory courses, which helps the students achieve higher-order thinking skills. An electrical laboratory course is given to the second semester students with the conventional experiments of machines at the application level. In order to inculcate analyzing skills, a case study of introducing a simple statistical analyzing tool based on MS-Excel in an experiment called ‘load test on a 3-phase induction motor using variable frequency drive (VFD)’ is presented in this paper. It was found from the laboratory assessment that the students using this analysis and visualization tool for interpreting the results scored well compared to the previous year's students.