Experiential Education – At Classroom, Lab or Home

It is no surprise that everyone finds activities, demos and hands-ons more engaging, as compared to lectures, problem sheets and step-by-step lab exercises. And students are no exception to this! Yet, hands on learning activities have very little role in a typical classroom scenario.Most of the classes continuously deliver theoretical concepts without quickly showing the relevance of the concepts in a real world scenario. The students have to wait for weeks or months to see / try what they were taught in class. And even when they do get to the lab, in many cases, the equipment/software are not flexible enough to make the lab very exciting. As a result, a big number of students do not understand the relevance of the concepts learnt in class to real world engineering. Many of them may also lose interest in engineering, as what they make in most labs may not be very exciting. This problem is potentially more serious now-a-days, because, the things that students use outside academia, like phones, laptops, apps, games etc. have a very interactive user experience, by which the user quickly figures out how to use the equipment/app. The younger generation has come to expect of the same interactive experience when it comes to learning concepts as well.

Wouldn't it be great:

- if there were flexible instruments which the students can bring to class and take home?

- if students could try out concepts in class immediately after they are taught?

- if students are excited enough to tinker, explore and reflect on concepts on their own?

This paper discusses, with examples and case studies of how, doing engineering anywhere (classroom, lab or home) and that too with real world signals, enhances the understanding and retention of concepts and gets the students excited about engineering.