Learning through Modern Tools in Power Quality to Evaluate Course ...

Learning through Modern Tools in Power Quality to Evaluate Course Outcome Amit Kumar Roy, Student Member IEEE Electrical Engineering Deptt. JSSATE, Noida, India [email protected]

Gunjan Varshney, Member IEEE Electrical Engineering Deptt. JSSATE, Noida, India [email protected]

provide innovative outcome based learning environment and techniques in power quality course of B. Tech Electrical Engineering program.

Abstract— Outcome based education (OBE) is the modern teaching buzzword which is widely accepted and practiced in most of the educational institutes across the world. For engineering courses where understanding of technical concept with practical understanding is highly relevant, the modern tool usage as project based learning during the delivery of course is required. This paper presents an innovative approach to evaluate the course outcomes (CO’s) of the course power quality and its relationship with program outcomes (PO’s) of Electrical Engineering. The evaluation is done by taking components from continuous internal assessment, modern tool usage, assignments and attendance. The course outcomes of different subjects are then mapped with program outcomes as one of the tool.

II. METHODOLOGY APPLIED A. Process Adopted The process adopted to evaluate the outcomes for the power quality course is iterative. It begins with systematic planning of lecture, that’s to be done before hand from starting. It involves rigorous learning and understanding by the course instructor from standard prescribed context, at the same time course outcomes are decided. Secondly, the learning objectives of each lecture are formulated that helps an instructor to acquire a systematic module of course conduction. Simultaneously lecture outcome is also assessed that helps in teaching learning process. Thirdly, after the stipulated time sessional tests (ST’s) are conducted and course outcomes are assessed. The question paper is designed in accordance to course outcomes mapped with the different questions. Simultaneously, usage of modern tools are taught to graduates, individual modules of the course are assigned to different group of students so that they can validate the theory in the simulation platform and correspondingly they are accessed via oral presentations. If CO’s are not attained in the sessional test and modern tool usage evaluation, then improvement tests and presentations are conducted to improve the performance and hence the course outcome attainment. This process is iterative till the end of course delivery, where maximum of ST’s and presentations conducted could be three in numbers. After the conduction of all ST’s, final CO’s are assessed by considering the average of all. As per mapping of CO’s and PO’s, assessment of PO is analyzed.

Index Terms— Course outcomes, Program outcomes, Power quality, Electrical Engineering.

I. INTRODUCTION OBE is a major requirement for the educational institutes involved in delivering higher education. In India, responsibility enforcing and evaluation of OBE is being undertaken by National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and the process involved is from Washington Accord. The Electrical Engineering department at JSS Academy of Technical Education, India is adopting and practicing OBE in order to continuously improve the teaching and learning quality with their stake holders. OBE practice requires innovative approaches for its implementation, at same time require various assessment tools for assessing PO’s [1]. For example, utility of data warehousing as a tool is done in [2], problem based learning (PBL) is used as a tool in [3] for lifelong learning. Enforcement of OBE requires effective teaching practices in theory as well as in laboratory course, thus a multifaceted assessment process in laboratory curriculum is elaborated in [4]. It’s inevitable, that engaging graduates to take up technical projects leads to better learning, thus Project based learning is effectively utilized as a tool for lifelong learning in [5]. Global acceptance of the graduates on the basis of their knowledge gained during their programme is one of the major agenda of OBE [6] - [9]. Power Quality is an important course that’s to be understood by stake holders (students) in order to meet the challenges faced by exponential use of nonlinear electrical loads. Thus it is equally important for the other stake holders who are at the delivery side (faculty/course instructor) to

c 978-1-4673-6747-9/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

Dr. V. K. Chandna, SM IEEE Electrical Engineering Deptt. JSSATEN, Noida, India [email protected]

The entire process adopted is summarized as per the flowchart depicted in Fig. 1. B. Evaluation Components of CO CO’s are the main attributes in OBE process, in order to evaluate the same, assessment process through the power quality course is majorly categorized into two components namely internal assessment and teachers assessment. Internal assessment is subdivided into internal tests referred as sessional

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tests (ST’s) and teacher assessment (TA) is subdivided into evaluation of modern tool usage, assignment given to students and their attendance throughout their course. The same categorization is visualized in Fig. 2.

CO Evaluation Components Adopted

C. Role of Modern Tools in Power Quality The subject of power quality has its varied applications in the domain of electrical transmission and distribution. Thus, the subject learning assists the stake holders (especially students) to design their project at the final year of B. Tech program. Since, understanding of the subject assists in project based learning, the role of modern tools comprising of software and hardware are equally important for attainment of GA’s. Some modern hardware and software tools are being effectively utilized for better learning of the course. For example, Digital storage oscilloscope (DSO) is used a hardware tool for teaching harmonic measurement techniques as a part of course curriculum. Labview, PSCAD, ETAP Matlab/Simulink software is extensively used as a tool for conceptual understanding of various modules in the course. Fig. 3 shows an exemplary model of a Matlab/Simulink based Simulation model of “Power Quality Improvement using Distribution Static Compensator (DSTATCOM)”. Demonstration of topics to the graduates via simulation platform helps in validating theoretical concepts, thus leads to their better understanding.

INTERNAL ASESSMENT (Sessional Tests- ST’s)

ST-1

ST-2

TEACHERS ASSESSMENT (TA)

ST-3

Presentation on Modern Tool Usage

Assignments

Attendence

Fig.2. Components of CO evaluation

Starting of Course

Fig.3. Matlab/ Simulink based model of DSTATCOM

Gather the course prerequisies

III. ASSESSMENT OF COURSE OUTCOMES

Perform the teaching-learning process (course delivery as per lecture plan, based on lecture objective & outcome)

Assessment of course outcomes is an essential attribute for qualitative analysis for the stake holders in OBE. It indirectly reflects the skills and knowledge that graduate will acquire by the end of course. The following Course Outcomes are adopted for power quality course;

Course Outcome Asessment of STn & Modern Tool Usage

Check if CO’S of STn are achieved ?

Check if performance on Modern Tool Usage is satisfactory?

NO Conduct performance Improvement Test for those students whose CO’s are not achieved based on STn

YES

n=n+1 (max value of n=3)

Compile the CO’S of all ST’s and Modern Tool Usage

Perform PO assessment

Compile the Assessment parameters

NO

CO-1: Able to apply the various power quality phenomenons and their origin in various equipments. CO-2: Able to apply the knowledge about various power quality monitoring and measurement techniques. CO-3: Able to design and implement the power quality mitigation techniques.

YES

As mention in Section II, CO assessment is done based on two components; firstly, marks obtained in ST's and secondly, marks obtained on the basis of presentation on modern tool usage. Individual mapping of questions present in ST's question paper, ability of the student to correctly solve a question corresponding to specific CO implies the attainment of that particular CO. Thus it is said that, CO attainment is directly correlated with the marks obtained via internal assessment process. A sample of above process is presented in Fig. 4.

Fig.1. Flow chart of the process adopted

2015 IEEE 3rd International Conference on MOOCs, Innovation and Technology in Education (MITE)

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As highlighted before graduates are motivated to learn modern tools through power quality course, thus to enforce the learning of same, presentation on modern tool usage is being taken, after they are assigned selected topics to validate their learning in the topics covered in lecture in simulation platform. Topics of presentation to demonstrate the graduate’s modern tool usage learning are being mapped with CO's. Finally, marks obtained in their presentation referred as Pres.1, Pres. 2 & Pres. 3 respectively (Table II) is accounted in CO assessment components. The percentage attainment of entire CO’s considering the marks obtained by students present in section-A and section-B (referred as sample-1 & 2) is shown in Fig. 5.

76 74 72 70 68

Sample-1

66

Sample-2

64 62 60 58 CO-1

CO-2

CO-3

Fig. 5. % Attainment of CO’s for sample-1 and sample-2

III. ASSESSMENT OF PROGRAMME OUTCOME Programme Outcomes (PO’s) indirectly helps in meeting the vision and mission of an institute involve in imparting technical education. Each participating departments needs to formulate the respective PO’s which are to be essentially accessed from the module CO’s. A. Defining PO’S

Fig.4. Marks obtained by students and its mapping with CO's Table I. Mapping Chart between CO’s and PO’s CO/ PO CO1 CO2 CO3

P O1

L

P O2

P O3

P O4

P O5

P O6

P O7

P O8

P O9

P O10

P O11

P O12

L

L

H

H

L

M

H

L

H

L

M

M

M

H

H

L

M

H

M

H

L

H

M

M

H

H

L

M

H

M

H

L

Table II. Cumulative CO Assessment of Sample1

CO's

CO-1

Assessment Component-1 ST-1

Pres.-1

ST-2

Pres.-2

75

70

54

75

CO-2

67

CO-3

69

98

Assessment Component-2

49

Assessment Component-3

Total % CO

ST-3

Pres.-3

Total

68

68.4

69

79

80

73.75

58

66.25

80

64.45

The following are the PO’s of Electrical engineering department [7]; 1. To lay the foundation in understanding the conceptual aspects of Electrical Engineering course curriculum. 2. To provide an interface for the practical exposure of various electrical components, equipments and machines. 3. To enable the students understand and explore the applications in the field of design, simulation and modeling of electrical systems. 4. To enable the students understand the conceptual aspects in the field of generation, transmission and distribution. 5. To groom the students for a successful career in electrical and allied engineering disciplines and gain competitive edge in the advanced professional and educational objectives. 6. To train the students to deal with the critical and adverse situations and find suitable solutions to overcome them. 7. To create awareness in continuing the professional and moral responsibilities in efficient manner in the society and workplace. 8. To improve the written and verbal communication skills of students pertaining to the electrical engineering related technological world. 9. To motivate the students in gaining and improving the learning in electrical, instrumentation, control and automation applications.


Table III. Sample Calculation of PO attainment

Multiplication with Weightage Factor

PO-2 (Replaced with Weightage factor)


CO-1 = 0.645 CO-2 = 0.79

1

0.7375

CO-3 = 0.58 Sum Calculation of PO Attainment

1

0.7375



1

0.645

2

1.475

2

1.475

3

1.9335

2

1.289

5

3.4085

5

3.448

80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Sample-1 Sample-2

PO-1 PO-2 PO-3 PO-4 PO5 PO-6 PO-7 PO-8 PO-9 PO-10 PO-11 PO-12

Cumul ative % of CO's


Fig. 6 Attainment of PO’s for Sample-1 and Sample 2 0.7375

0.6817

0.6896

10. Introduction of computer based system analysis of real world physical systems and establishing analogy of mechanical systems with electrical systems. 11. To motivate the students to work in team oriented environment and to induct or boost the leadership qualities within them. 12. To enable them to participate and qualify competitive examinations.

Further, it is necessary to evaluate the course outcomes of individual student and for those who do not meet the target are required corrective action. The assessment of students is done by taking their performance in the continuous evaluation during the course as internal test and also through presentation of simulation models as major component. This process enhances the ability of the student to understand the need of a particular course for society as a whole and encourage him to apply the knowledge acquired during his engineering practice. REFERENCES [1]

B. Mapping PO’s with CO’s & its evaluation In order to assess the attainment of PO from CO, PO’s are mapped with CO’s as depicted in Table. I. Nomenclature of H, M and L is adopted for high, medium and low correlation respectively. If no correlation is found, then mapping is left blank. Further, PO’s are evaluated based on the described mapping. For evaluation of PO’s, weighting factors are being put on corresponding to each nomenclature. Weighting factor 3, 2 and 1 is kept for H, M and L respectively. These factors are further multiplied with the cumulative CO’s obtained from Table. II, this gives final PO attainment (as given in Table. III). A comparative analysis of PO attainment from sample-1 and sample-2 is presented in Fig. 6. On an average the overall PO attainment for both samples comes to be 70 %, which is above the target boundary of 60 %. IV. CONCLUSION The syllabus of the course is divided by the university into five units and it is mandatory for the faculty member to deliver the same. The limitation here is the outcome. The course content does not necessarily provide the hand on experience in the area of power quality, and it is a major concern for power utilities. Thus, as content beyond syllabus the whole course is divided into modules and the students are guided to explore the different tools viz. Matlab, Labview, PSCAD, ETAP etc. and model the course content with simulation studies. Under this process the delivery of the course becomes interactive.

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

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