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Solid State Challenge Manual

Program Description

 

Solid-State Challenge is not a self-instructional program or a tutorial. Rather, it is a

set of interactive activities designed to supplement other instructional components

by adding the following three elements through Computer Based Instruction. First,

the exercises give students immediate feedback to reinforce correct responses

and help prevent the development of misconceptions. Second, context sensitive

help and hints are provided where appropriate to make learning rapid and

convenient. Third, each activity is corrected and graded on-line which benefits both

students and teachers. Solid-State Challenge includes a total of twelve interactive

exercises. The first ten activities titles are Diode Testing, Transistor Testing, Base

Biased Amplifiers, Common Emitter Amplifiers without Bypass, Common Emitter

Amplifiers with Bypass, Common Collector Amplifiers, Common Base Amplifiers,

Single Source Push-Pull Power Amplifiers, Dual Source Push-Pull Power

Amplifiers and Push-Pull Power Amplifiers with Darlington Transistors. The last

two exercises in this program are virtual troubleshooting experiences on simple

base biased amplifiers and voltage divider biased amplifiers. The Solid-State

Challenge program can also be used effectively to perform classroom

demonstrations using a LCD video projector or large screen monitor.

 

 

Much effort went into making this program easy to use and highly interactive. This

program is designed for users who may have little experience with using

computers and computer software. Students can use the Solid-State Challenge

environment to freely try methods and learn by experiment and discovery. Being

allowed to search, experiment and discover are aspects often found in games but

sadly missing in the educational environment. The freedom to experiment with and

discover concepts can make learning more interesting and exciting.

 

New parameters are selected every time an exercise is used. This allows students

to practice a particular exercise numerous times without boredom and memorizing

the answers. The troubleshooting exercises have over ten thousand variations

each! Because of the simple interface, most students will be able to

experimentally learn to use this program within a short time. Most option

selections are forgiving because a confirmation is required for important selections.

 

Each exercise begins with viewing an introductory page. The introductory page

presents formulas and important ideas about the topic. Selection of a "BEGIN"

button moves students from the introductory page to the interactive exercise. The

program measures the time that is required to complete each exercise. Students

have the option to print a certificate showing Topic Title, Student Name, Student

ID, Date/Time, Score, Time on Task, and a Validity Code. The Validity Code can

be used to verify that the certificate is authentic. In addition, students have the

option to have scores recorded in a disk file. The "Check Certificate Validity"

option can be used to determine if a certificate has been altered.

 

Suggested Program Applications

 

The field of education is continuously developing ways to define desired outcomes

for students, methods to achieve the desired skills and measurement methods to

document skill attainment. Terms such as "measurable criterion referenced

behavioral objectives" are sometimes used to express such methods. The

Solid-State Challenge activities are designed to assist student attainment of a

series of learning objectives essential in the early phases of learning electricity

and electronics. Objective statements are not included in the activities to allow

local institutions and organizations to use local formats for objective statements.

The activities have the surface appearance of a "drill and practice" or an on-line

test.  In fact, the program can be used for these purposes. However, the program

activities are designed to play a much broader role in teaching and learning

electronic principles. The exercises have powerful underlying logic for designing

realistic exercises with intuitive interactivity. Students should be encouraged to

practice the activities without concern for scores and "time on task" while learning

the rudimentary concepts of each topic. As skill grows, then students can begin to

be concerned with improving scores and reducing "time on task" for a good or

perfect score. This self-evaluation and placing students in the learning loop can

produce significant motivation. Progress can be reported to the instructor in three

ways. First, students can turn in the program-generated certificates for each topic

to the teacher. Second, students can have the program record scores in a file on a

diskette to be turned in to the teacher. Third, the teacher can have students

perform the computer-based activity on a computer under direct observation.

 

Using the Windows Calculator

 

The Windows calculator can be used with this program. The following procedure

can be used to set the calculator up. Select PROGRAMS, then ACCESSORIES,

and then CALCULATOR before starting the program. The Windows calculator

should be displayed on the screen. Select the block with the "line" in the upper

right corner of the calculator. This reduces the calculator to an icon on the task

bar. Start execution of the Solid-State Challenge program. When you want to use

the calculator, press the Windows key or Ctrl/Esc to display the task bar. Click

the calculator button. You can also hold down the Alt key and press Tab until the

calculator icon is highlighted. You may need to review your Windows manual on

switching Windows tasks if these brief instructions are difficult to follow.

 

Copying and Pasting

 

In some instances, you may want to copy and paste numbers between exercises

and the calculator.  The calculator has Copy and Paste options under Edit. This

program allows you to use the right mouse button to evoke a Cut, Copy, and

Paste menu. The mouse pointer must be positioned on a data block for this

process to be active. The standard Windows Copy and Paste keystrokes, Ctrl/C

and Ctrl/V, can also be used in most activities.

 

Printing Screens

 

The date and time of day is displayed in the lower left corner of most pages. A

double click on the date will send a copy of the page to your printer. The quality of

the printout will be low as this procedure does a simple screen print. This option

may not function on all hardware and software configurations. Some networks may

restrict printer access.

 

Required Accuracy

 

Exercises with numeric answers are graded correct if the answer given by the

student is within plus or minus five percent of the correct solution. Grading to a

fixed percent of accuracy can lead to confusing circumstances where Kirchhoff's

law is applied in series and parallel circuits. An example will illustrate this

situation. A certain series circuit has a 100-volt source, which produces a voltage

drop of 95 volts across R1 and 5 Volts across R2. A student makes a small error

resulting in the calculated value for the R1 voltage drop to be 96 volts. The student

used Kirchhoff's law to calculate the R2 voltage drop to be 4 volts. The program will

grade the R1 voltage drop answer to be correct. It disagrees only slightly over one

percent with the ideal value. The program will grade the R2 voltage drop to be

incorrect. The answer disagrees by twenty percent with the ideal value.  The

student asks "How can the one be right if the other is wrong?" Yet the judgement

is entirely correct based on percent of accuracy. Therefore, answers should be

calculated and entered to at least one-percent accuracy even though the basic

grading standard is five percent. Problem solutions cascade from answer to

answer in series, parallel, and series-parallel circuit analysis. A small error on an

early solution will sometimes snowball to a serious error in later answers. Thus, an

error in total power may have its beginnings in a slight error in total resistance.

 

Troubleshooting Scores

 

The troubleshooting exercises are not graded on a percent basis. Rather, the

scores are based on a maximum score of 120 points. Each run of a

troubleshooting exercise gives the user ten problems. The user can earn up to

twelve points for a correct answer to each of the problems. The points awarded for

a correct answer for each problem is decreased by one point for each meter

reading used before the user determines the circuit fault. An error on the circuit

fault reduces the user's score to zero for the problem. The user can continue to

make measurements after "INCORRECT" is displayed on a problem. This allows

users to diagnose their error in troubleshooting the problem. Measurements taken

while "INCORRECT" is displayed do not affect scoring.  Careful strategy and

interpretation of each meter reading must be used to obtain consistent high scores

in a short time. Perfect scores of 120 points can't be obtained except by guessing.

The standard for a good to excellent score depends on the training, background

and experience of the user. Each training institution must set its own standard for

acceptable score and time for each exercise. 

 

 Storing Scores on Disks

 

Student scores can be stored on a diskette. A diskette must be in the drive prior

to choosing this option. Errors and possible loss of the score data may occur if

the drive does not contain a diskette. The file generated by the disk storage

feature is given a DOS compatible file name, gxxxxxxx.xx, where the lower case

"g" is always the first letter in the file name. The xxx… is the student ID that is a

sequence of two to nine numeric digits. The file is a simple ASCII text file that can

be read and examined with any word processor. Do not examine and resave a

student grade file under the original name with a word processor! This can make

the file appear corrupted by the score printout utility. Word processors inject

formatting characters into a file. This program calculates and stores a code with

each record in the student score file. This Validity Code is a simple encryption

signature designed to reduce the possibility of file entry alteration and the

generation of duplicate records. The Validity Code provides some low-level security

but is certainly not hack proof. The validity of records can most easily be checked

by use of the "Print Grade File" option.  This option produces a formatted printout

of a selected student grade file. Never attempt to use this option to print any other

file type. Each grade record in the file is validity checked with "E!" printed after any

record failing the validity test. The routine also checks for duplicate records that

are indicated by "D!" printed after the duplicate record.

 

This program stores student grade files on diskette drive A: by default. One may

want to store grade files on another drive or directory under some circumstances.

See the next paragraph for instructions on changing the path for student grade

files. The student records will be stored in a file named gxxxxxxx.x where the x(s)

represent the digits of the students ID Code. The ID Codes are a series of numeric

digits. The ID Code must contain at least 2 digits long but no longer than 9 digits.

A DOS filename is generated with an appended lower case g followed by up to 7

digits. Any additional digits are added after a period to produce a legal DOS file

name. The file is a simple ASCII text file that can be viewed with any word

processor. The score printing options in this program can detect modifications to

the file. In addition, individual records in the file can be validity checked by use of a

procedure in this program. These validity-checking procedures are not intended to

offer high data security.

 

Initial Option Settings

 

This program reads the file "options.ini" on each startup. The file options.ini is

located in the same directory as the program file. The first entry sets the condition

for the certificate printing option default condition. The two possible settings are:

 

CERTIFICATES ON or CERTIFICATES OFF

 

The second entry in the  "options.ini" file sets the default condition of the disk

storage feature for grades. The two possible settings are:

 

DISK STORAGE ON or DISK STORAGE OFF

 

The third entry in the  "options.ini" file sets the default condition of the Wallpaper

option. The possible settings are:

 

WALL PAPER ON or WALL PAPER OFF

 

All characters in the above initialization options must be in upper case characters.

All characters are significant including spaces. Any error in spelling, spaces, or

case will cause the option to default to the ON setting.

 

Line 4 of the option.ini file contains the path for student grade file storage. Errors in

formatting this line may cause program execution errors. Any directory or

subdirectory paths given must exist prior to program execution. The program will

not create directories. No entry on line 4 will cause the program to default to a:\ as

the path for student grade storage. A few examples of paths and explanations are

given below.

 

b:\

 

The student grades will be stored on drive b:

 

c:\stuff\

 

The student grade files will be stored in the "stuff" directory of c: drive. Caution!

You must create the "stuff" directory prior to running the program.

 

c:\records\student\

 

Grade files will be stored in the "student" subdirectory of the "records" directory of

c: drive. Again, you must create the directory structure prior to running the

program.

 

Diskette Precautions

 

Floppy disk data is easily corrupted or destroyed in several ways. Students should

be strongly advised to make backup copies of their floppy disk grade files

frequently to avoid data loss problems. Teachers can prevent massive data losses

by processing student floppy disk files often.  This also encourages students to

have assignments up to date.

 

Video and Hardware Considerations

 

This program should run on any Windows Vista, XP, 98 or Me platform.

The evaluation version of the program should be

tested on target machines prior to licensing the program. The best results for

graphics is obtained with a 16-bit or 24-bit color setting and either 480x640 or

600x800 resolution. The program can be use with any resolution of 480x640 or

higher. There will be some distortion caused by palette flash when used with video

set to 256 colors. Where resolutions above 480x640 are used, the working window

is centered with the unused area wallpapered by default with the image chips.bmp

found in the Solid-State Challenge install directory. The wallpaper will produce

strange but interesting color patterns on systems set to 600x800 or higher

resolution with 256 colors because of palette flash. This will not affect program

operation. This program can be used effectively in 16-color mode. However, some

of the animations and non-essential screen elements will be difficult to see clearly.

 

The file chips.bmp can be deleted or renamed to allow normal task switching as

no wallpaper will be displayed. This can be useful to more advanced students who

are familiar with task switching.  The wallpaper is useful to beginners because

accidental task switches are unlikely.  Another bitmap file can be substituted for

chips.bmp. The file will be tiled as wallpaper across the unused portion of super

VGA displays. Some institutions may want to display school or department logos

on the wallpaper.