Student understanding of phase shifts, frequency and Bode plots

Abstract

In a series of interviews with second year electronics engineering students, several of them showed problems with signal properties. In a questionnaire administered to over 150 students in Belgium, these problems were further explored to verify how widespread they are. The questions asked about different aspects of signals. Students showed that they understand the concept of a phase shift, although they have problems with the direction. However, they generally have no idea what a signal with two frequencies looks like in the time domain. Bode plots also proved to be a problem for students, who are not able to construct one from a set of (dummy) measurements. Most of these issues persist after lab instruction.