How Does Animation-based Learning Affect Students' Achievements and Attitudes Towards Electronics? (2020)

Abstract How Does Animation-Based Learning Affect Students' Attitudes Towards Electronics? One of the fundamental subjects taught in electronics is the bipolar junction transistor(BJT), a topic that requires a firm knowledge of mathematics and physics. Students studyingtowards a practical engineering degree in electronics often face great difficulty when studyingthe BJT, as they lack the necessary scientific background. The authors have therefore recently developed a new computerized animation to assist suchstudents in understanding the dynamic processes of the BJT in its three modes of operation:cut-off, forward-active, and saturation. The paper describes the results of a study that compared the attitudes towards electronicsand academic achievements of students who learned about the BJT through animation(experimental group) with those of student who learned using static drawings andsummarizing notes from the blackboard (control group). The research population comprised41 students who in 2011 were studying towards a practical engineering degree in electronicsat a leading college and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Aquantitative approach was applied based on a pretest-posttest control group design. Thepretest findings showed no significant differences between the two groups’ attitudes andachievements. The posttest results, however, indicated that students who learned BJT throughanimation gained a significantly better understanding than those who learned according to thetraditional format. Moreover, students in the experimental group exhibited significantly morepositive attitudes towards electronics, as measured on a Likert-type scale, compared withthose exhibited by the control group. Students who learned about the BJT through animationfound electronics to be more interesting and had stronger feelings of competence than didtheir peers from the control group. We recommend that our colleagues include animations, developed with an eye toward thestudents' background, when teaching the operation principles of electronic devices such as theBJT.ReferencesDeci, E. L., Vallerand, R. J., Pelletier, L. G., & Ryan R. M. (1991). Motivation andEducation: The Self-Determination Perspective. Educational Psychologist, 26, 325-346.Karmalkar, S. (1999). Simple unified elucidations of some semiconductor device phenomena.IEEE Transactions on Education, 42, 323 – 327.Mayer, R. E., & Moreno, R. (2002). Animation as an aid to multimedia learning.Educational Psychology Review, 14, 87-99.Mayer, R. E, Hegarty, M., Mayer, S., & Campbell, J. (2005). When static mediapromote active learning: annotated illustrations versus narrated animations inmultimedia instruction. Journal of experimental psychology: Applied, 11, 256-265.Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classicdefinitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54-67.Sihar, S., Aziz, S. H., & Sulaiman, Z. A. (2011). Design and development ofsemiconductor courseware for undergraduate students. Journal of Applied Sciences, 11,883-887.Tversky, B., Bauer-Morrison, J., & Betrancourt, M. (2002). Animation:can it facilitate? International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 57,247-262.