Enhancing Understanding and Retention in Undergraduate ECE Courses through Concept Mapping

Concept mapping is well recognized for its effectiveness in promoting deep learning and aiding students in understanding knowledge acquisition in complex subjects. In undergraduate ECE courses, instructors usually present topics one by one, followed by examples and applications. Instructors can easily navigate all course information due to their well-established understanding of the entire course and the connections between its topics. However, students face the challenge of establishing the connection between their existing knowledge and the new concepts and reinforcing those connections through repeated practice. In this work, we introduced concept mapping as an assessment tool to help students build these links and enhance their learning experience. The goal is to improve students' comprehension, retention, and interconnectivity of complex course topics. We have systematically integrated concept mapping into four distinct courses: a freshman course about electronics (ECE 110), a sophomore course about signal processing (ECE 210), and two junior-level courses about electromagnetics (ECE 329) and green energy (ECE 333). In each course, students were asked to create their own concept maps before midterm exams. The maps were scored qualitatively by the instructor based on the number of concepts and their structures. This exercise was designed to encourage students to consolidate their knowledge and foster a deeper understanding of the course material by visualizing and summarizing the relationships between key topics. This type of active learning also empowers students to take ownership of their learning by creating and revising their concept maps. A fundamental aspect of our course improvement work involved gathering feedback from students regarding their perceptions of the effectiveness of concept mapping in these courses. In each course, a survey was administered at the end of the semester to gauge students' experiences, opinions, and reflections. Our findings from the surveys indicate that concept mapping is perceived positively by a significant proportion of the students, especially if it's actively used as an instruction tool during the semester. Students reported that concept mapping enhanced their understanding of the course material.