PmWiki | AT / Assistive Technology & Electronics Course Feedback and Planning for Next Year

Things that went well

Textbook was very accessable and appropriate for the class
Groups worked well together - many groups balanced the work
Lab time vs. instructional time was balanced
The course was challenging
Students had fun doing their work
The students cared about their projects
The final projects looked great
The labs helped prepare them for thier projects
The work load seemed appropriately balanced

Things that need improvement...ATDF Projects

Timing & structure of AT project
- Need to identify clients earlier, possibly look into lining up potential clients and bring in to students on Day 2; possibly VA or local snoezelen room; still leave open possibility for students to use their own client, but proposal would need to be complete within two weeks
- Emphasis on project management and breaking down tasks and keeping team members responsible for completing their taks on time
- Team size: 3 students may be better than 4, especially if projects are focused and tasks are delineated with instructor help
- Preserve C days in February (and designate class if necessary) for team planning
- Set up hard deadlines to break down tasks to help manage process, for example...
  - Project Proposal (2 weeks after beginning of class)
  - Some concrete ideas about functionality & possible electronic solutions, materials (+ 2 weeks)
  - PDR (including even more refined electronics concepts for selected approach, funcional block diagram, part list) (+ 2 weeks)
  - Prototype electronics, budget & first parts order, prototype mechanical and decide on materials (+ 1 week)
    - Emphasize prototyping before final build, especially for repetitive tasks
  - EAGLE PCB Layout deadline (+1 week)
  - Test with client before fair deadline (1 week prior to fair)
  - Design Fair
  - Cleanup & final delivery (+1 week)
- Planned extra help days (e.g., Thursday afternoons)
- Wiki a useful tool, but...
  - need to have more structure for consistency to make sure what we need is on line, easy to find
  - need to improve student sharing of EAGLE files, presentation files, etc.

Things that need improvement...Electronics/Fab topics Projects

Problem: Many students had little knowledge or practice working with tools, so when it came time to fab, they did not know what they were up against, possibly leading to feeling that schedule wasn't going to be a problem, when actually it was!
Solution?: turn around course to put fab up front to give them some knowledge and to start creative design process. Eg. build a board THEN learn how to fab & build a board THEN learn how to breadboard THEN learn the electronics. For example...
- Day 1: Students read learn how to solder manual for hw, take quiz, then solder board in class (compenent ID and fab skills)
- Day 2/3/4: Student do hw on finding a shocker circuit diagram on internet; learn Eagle circuit diagram and board layout, fab process; and build up the pcb. This can can be done prior to having any EE knowledge. Learn to measure voltages & power calculations.
- Next week introduce breadboarding and intro to simple circuits and in parallel the students need to package their shocker to get an idea of mechanical tasks necessary for AT project.
- Continue on with other EE topics (Chaps 1-6, 9, add topics on diodes, LEDs switches, relays, general ICs/spec reading)
- Add another circuit at end of course for Lab 6 (Mint Tin Amp or equivalent), and add some simple homeworks over the first months to "find a circuit diagram that does X" so students can see that there are many resources to use to help with AT project ideas
Create an explicit troubleshooting checklist
- step through circuit diagram with frined calling out
- right components
- check for power using DMM at key points
- using EE knowledge, check key nodes/pins for expected voltages

To Do List

Year-end inventory
Books for next year from http://wwww.BunchesofBooks.com