Enhancing the student experience in pre‐ and mid‐COVID‐19 pandemic period by upgrading the power electronics laboratory practice curriculum

ABSTRACT

Laboratory practices, which represent a vital part of electrical engineering education, have especially in the last few years been subjected to numerous challenges. The paper presents a concept of upgrading the laboratory practice curriculum in power electronics by introducing computer simulations. Due to the recognized shortcomings of the previous approach, the curriculum was closely reviewed, compared to the concepts from existing literature, and intensively upgraded by the introduction of the Ansys Simplorer computer program. The intensity of the process upgrade was enhanced by the COVID‐19 pandemic and related lockdowns. The introduced curriculum changes enabled the students to approach individual topics more gradually, reducing the gaps between the behavior of ideal and real power electronics circuits. The results of student feedback, obtained by a web‐based survey and a pre‐exam quiz, demonstrate that students recognize the new approach as being more gradual and beneficial, enabling them to improve their understanding of specific phenomena and to master the topics of power electronics with ease and satisfaction.