EENG16200 - Applications of Electronics: Analogue Electronics

Learning Tools and Support Mechanisms

Time commitment and credit points:

The university delivers teaching activities on a credit point system. Each undergraduate year
comprises 120 credit points. A single credit point requires approximately 10 hours of student effort.
Applications of Electronics is a 10 credit point unit, 5 credit points are allocated to the analogue
electronics part, representing 50 hours of student effort.

For the analogue electronics part of the unit there are 12 lectures, 5 examples classes,1 three-hour
laboratory activity and ½ of a two-hour examination paper. This leaves 29 hours of student effort. It
is reasonable to assume 11 hours for final revision prior to the exam. It is, hence, expected that
students spend three hours a week in private study during weeks 1-6 to support their learning for
the analogue electronics part of the Application of Electronics unit.

The mapping of credit points to student effort in hours is approximate; therefore, students should
expect to spend between 2 and 4 hours a week in private study to support the analogue electronics
part of the Applications of Electronics unit. The actual time spent depends on the prior knowledge
and aptitude held by the student concerned. An individual student spending less than 2 hours per
week in private study should consider extending his/her knowledge via additional reading of the
cited text.

The university takes the maintenance of mental health within its student population very seriously;
individual students should not be spending unreasonable time in the pursuit of study. An individual
student spending more than 4 hours per week in private study to support their learning of this part
of the unit should raise this as an issue of concern with his/her personal tutor.

It is important that individual students spread the expected effort commitment throughout the
academic year. To put this in a candid manner, students should be continuously engaged week by
week and avoid an attitude of ‘I’ll catch up later’. The analogue electronics part of the Applications of
Electronics unit ends in teaching week 6 (with an additional examples class in week 7). With the
exception of revision for the terminal examination sat in January, students are expected to have
spent sufficient effort to attain the learning outcomes by the end of week 7. Student effort is
required for other units and learning after week 7.

Private study tasks (examples and reading):

Each section of the notes has advised examples and reading activity based upon the cited text.
Understanding this material via the application of the theoretical aspects presented in lectures is a
vital part of the expected student commitment to private study. As adult learners it is expected that
you manage your own learning commitment, there is no checking mechanism to ensure that you
engage with the advised learning activities.

The cited text is available in hard-copy form (many copies in the Queens Building Library) and as an
online licence-controlled soft-copy available from the Queens Building Library Web site. In most
cases the numerical answers given in an appendix within the text are sufficient guidance for students
to complete the examples. For some students, some examples require additional guidance for
achievement to be attained. Such examples have been identified and Pencast solutions are available
on the Blackboard site for this unit. Pencasts are video versions of pdf files which may be played at
the required speed of the learner: hand-written appearing-text and synchronised commentary may
be played, paused and repeated.

In addition to the suggested exercises, students are expected to spend a few hours during the
reading week (8) engaging with the past papers. Questions with answers are provided covering the
previous three years of examinations on the Blackboard pages for the unit, these are an excellent
method for students to monitor their progress and target private study time. A mapping document is
provided which relates the three previous years of exam questions to sections of the delivered
material so that students can appropriately focus their effort.

A single-page pre-laboratory mandatory reading task is available via the Blackboard site for this unit.
Students are, as a minimum, expected to read this document prior to presenting themselves at their
timetabled laboratory session associated with this part of the unit.

Revision prior to sitting an examination paper works; students who revise demonstrate better
achievement of the learning outcomes of a unit. It is important that you plan your revision early and
manage your pre-exam period effort.

Attaining support from the Analogue Electronics Lecturer:

There are multiple access pathways available to students to gain support, feedback and progress
checking from the lecturer.

 The analogue electronics lectures commonly end early, by intention, to allow for individuals
to ask questions on the most recently delivered material on a one-to-one basis with the
lecturer. This is a popular pathway and you may have to queue in order to gain attention. In
addition, students are always welcome to ask questions during the lectures; however, the
time spent answering in-lecture questions must be balanced against the overall teaching
delivery aims of the lecture.
 The examples classes for this part of the unit are ran as responsive mode support
workshops. For the most part the text and the Pencasts are sufficient for student
achievement of the private study tasks. However, sometimes students benefit from a
concept being explained again (commonly in a different way), or a particular example being
talked-through ‘live’. The support workshops are targeted at those who need this type of
learning support and are not mandatory. Some students come and ask questions which are
then answered with presentation the attendees. Some students come to listen to the
questions and answers being considered and don’t actively participate. Some students are
sufficed by the text, on-line resources, and post-lecture question sessions and don’t come to
the support workshops. All of these options are fine and allow individual students to manage
their effort and time spent on this part of the unit.
 See the support in the laboratory section below for additional access to the lecturer. You will
have time in the lab to ask any questions on the material you have seen thus far at the time.

Support in the analogue laboratory:

The laboratory activity is heavily supported. Take advice and redo parts of lab activity if necessary.
All should expect to get full marks, there is time to attain this within the duration of the lab with
support from the team. Use the extra time after you complete the lab to get support from Dr Warr
on the analogue part of the unit, this is a good time to get support, ask questions, monitor your
progress and get any additional information you need. Use the support team for lab support, use Dr
Warr for unit content support.
What students should not expect in terms of support:

There are in excess of 530 students sitting this unit. The Analogue Electronics lecturer cannot reply
to individual requests for one-to-one tuition. Students should use the cited access times to ask
questions and attend the support workshops for additional help. However, it is sometimes possible
for an additional revision session to be arranged for all students in week 12, should it be requested.
Requests for this are best made via the student year representatives and the unit director (digital
electronics lecturer).

Gender-referencing pronoun disclaiming statement: This document may use the pronouns ‘his’ and
‘him’ to simplify the prose: This makes no gender-specific reference. These pronouns are used as a
ubiquitous reference to all six of the genders recognised by the UK Royal College of General
Practitioners.