Nissim Sabag

• Ph.D.
• ORT Braude College

Problem based learning (PBL) is a learner-centered pedagogy in which students perform research combining theory and practice in order to find a solution to a given problem. A possible platform for the implementation of PBL is the inquiry based laboratory. The study described here dealt with an inquiry based electronics laboratory offered at a leadi...

In the course of the last three years, a longitudinal study researching engineering students’ understandings of the concept of accuracy and error has been carried out. Previous studies of the researchers investigated general misunderstandings of the concept of accuracy and error among engineering students from different programs, and specific misun...

The current paper presents of a continuous longitudinal research dealing with different aspects of accuracy and the way the students understand it. Previous studies have shown that understanding the accuracy concept is not obvious. A previous study exposed students’ difficulties in calculating measurement accuracy of digitized signals. After writin...

Background The importance of knowledge and skills in mathematics for electrical engineering students is well known. Engineers and engineering educators agree that any engineering curriculum must include plenty of mathematics studies to enrich the engineer’s toolbox. Nevertheless, little attention has been given to the possible contribution of examp...

The current study explores how BSc engineering students at an academic college of engineering perceive engineering and mathematical understanding and the interrelationships between them. The theoretical framework for this research includes three main aspects of engineering and mathematical understanding: procedural, conceptual, and applicable. The...

During the past two years, we suggested to the college’s engineering students to diversify their general studies with MOOCs. This experiment was awarded scant interest. The college students were then given the opportunity to enroll in a new online course in Hebrew, as part of the college’s general studies. The current paper compares students' attit...

The match between students’ learning styles (LS) and their teachers’ instructional strategies (IS) and the correlation of this LS-IS match with students’ academic achievements was studied in earlier research. However, there is no report of research where one-on-one education is implemented. Moreover, there are no references relating the match of a...

The ability to evaluate, according to Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, is one of the highest categories in the cognitive domain. Accordingly, the development of the ability to evaluate is an important pedagogical goal. Evaluation includes the capacity to make judgments about the quality of work based on a set of criteria. Estimation is a...

Background: During the past year and a half we tried to interest the college’s students in diversifying their general studies with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). This experiment was awarded scant interest for various reasons. Some of the reasons: (1) A heavier burden of studies in comparison to general courses that the MOOCs were supposed to...

Some researchers claim that a close match between a student's learning style (LS) and the teacher's instructional strategies (IS) supports students' achievements. Accordingly, in order to maximize student achievements, teachers should adjust their teaching strategies to fit their students' learning styles. The current paper deals with a true field...

Many researchers mention various kind of project learning. Among the terms, connected to projects learning there are: Inquiry-based learning, product-based learning, project-oriented learning and project-based learning. The two colleges in the common campus, the college of engineering and the college of practical engineering, carrying the similar n...

It was found in previous studies that engineering students have many difficulties in understanding the accuracy concept. The previous study exposed students’ misunderstandings in Digital Electronics course. These misunderstandings are linked to digitizing of electrical signals. With the aim to overcome students’ difficulties, teaching the accuracy...

In the frameworks of the described time-effective cloud-based approach, educators are able to prepare a specific laboratory MS Word template file containing an exact list of student assignments to be executed. The student (or pair of students) compiles and finalizes the report during the laboratory by using a computer connected to the Internet. Stu...

This paper examines students' achievements in solving problems and their misunderstandings when using models. A mixed research methodology was applied. Quantitative research investigated how the performance of students with various levels of high school GPAs correlated with their rating of their lecturers' teaching proficiency. Four lecturers and 3...

It is known that students have lot of difficulties in understanding of the accuracy concept. In the current study, 57 electrical and electronics engineering students who took the course Digital Electronics in their third academic year participated. Two problems concerning the concept of accuracy were developed and appeared on the final exam. The pr...

Background:Learning processes are usually characterized by students’ misunderstandings and misconceptions. Engineering educators intend to help their students overcome their misconceptions and achieve correct understanding of the concept. This paper describes a misconception in digital systems held by many students who believe that combinational lo...

Higher education institutions face conflicting challenges; they must equip students with up-to-date knowledge in fields in which knowledge is constantly being renewed, while they also need to guide students to examine reality through broad-based observation and consider different scientific disciplines. They operate within different constrictions s...

A mandatory internship program for all engineering students studying towards a B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Academic College for Engineering ORT Braude exposes students to supervised internship in engineering design in industry or research project in academia for at least 1,000 hours. Some 20 years of experience with...

Many educators have demonstrated that use of the clicker-based Instant Feedback System (IFS) during lectures advances in students' active learning that results in better academic achievements. The wide proliferation of smartphones and tablets (having high-resolution digital cameras and powerful computing processors) means that simple and inexpensiv...

Some researchers claim that a good match between students’ learning styles (LS) and teachers’ instructional strategies (IS) contributes to students’ achievements. Accordingly, in order to maximize student achievements teachers should adjust their teaching strategies to fit their students’ Learning Styles. The current paper presents a study designed...

As has been shown in previous studies, students misperceive important engineering concepts such as accuracy. The present research investigated students' understanding of the concepts of accuracy and error, and their achievements in solving simple problems focusing on measurement accuracy and error. A quantitative research methodology was applied. A...

As it has been founded in previous studies, students misperceived such important engineering concept as accuracy. The research aimed to investigate students' understanding of accuracy and error concepts and students' achievement in solving of simple problems concerning at the accuracy and the error of the measurement. A quantitative research method...

This article describes examples of reflection documented in a longitudinal research comprising two studies: a three-year three-stage study on technology project-based learning (TPBL) and a three-year two-stage study on engineering thinking (ET). Both studies used qualitative tools such as interviews, active observations, and document analysis. Refl...

Two-year college teachers face great difficulty when they teach the principle of operation of the bipolar junction transistor – a subject which forms the basis for electronics studies. The difficulty arises from both the complexity of the device and by the lack of adequate scientific background among the students. We, therefore, developed a unique...

The toughest obstacle faced by the BSc-EEE students at ORT Braude College of Engineering is completing the enhanced physics courses. The average failure rate over the last five years in these courses is about 58%. In the current article, the authors examine the roots of students' difficulties in order to reduce the failure rate, without compromisin...

This study aimed at identifying the areas of physics that students considered as posing difficulty and what account for this difficulty. A questionnaire was administered to 830 (306 females and 524 males) final year students in science class and 52 physics teachers purposively drawn from secondary schools in Ogun and Lagos States, Nigeria. The find...

Many educators have demonstrated that use of the clicker-based Instant Feedback System (IFS) during lectures advances in students' active learning that results in better academic achievements. The wide proliferation of smartphones and tablets (having high-resolution digital cameras and powerful computing processors) means that simple and inexpensiv...

Long life learning is one of the prominent characters needed to a novice engineer during his or her career. Putting this in mind, the engineering educators should make their best efforts to purify their students out of misconceptions. We believe that in work life the engineer will find it harder to overcome his or her misconception without an exter...

Abstract A mandatory internship program for all engineering students studying towards a B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Academic College for Engineering ORT Braude exposes students to supervised internship in engineering design in industry or research project in academia for at least 1,000 hours. Some 20 years of experi...

The Instant Feedback System (IFS) described in this article is designed to collect students’ responses to a series of multiple-choice questions. An IFS enables the educators to improve their teaching by generating real-time feedback from the students about the clarity of the lesson. A number of IFS are known: systems using wired mini-keyboards, inf...

The paper describes the results of a study that compared the academic achievements of practical engineering students who learned about complex numbers through traditional lectures and in lab experiments using basic AC circuits with those of students who attended the same lectures but whose exercises were the standard ones—in a classroom using chalk...

It is well established that students’ misunderstandings and misconceptions frequently impede learning processes and frustrate their best efforts. Little is known about how they relate to engineering thinking. We claim that some learning difficulties are common to several engineering disciplines. The aim of the study presented in this paper is to an...

This paper presents the outcomes of the preliminary survey in which the method of IFS was used to integrate motivating questions into the lecture presentations in order to increase the students' involvement. Instant Feedback System (IFS) enables the educators to improve their own teaching by getting instant and real-time feedback about how clear th...

Teaching abstract subjects to students studying towards a degree in electronics practical engineering (a degree between a technician and an engineer) requires didactic tools that enable understanding of issues without using advanced mathematics and physics. One basic issue is the BJT (Bipolar Junction Transistor) that requires preliminary knowledge...

This paper describes a four-year program to advance electrical and electronics studies and their implementation in eight northern Israeli high schools. The program was begun with four schools participating, increasing to eight schools toward the end. This paper presents the teaching and learning processes of teachers and students during the program...

The article presents the results of a two-semester research which examined student achievements in problem solving using engineering models in electronics. The research aimed at investigating the effect of the following variables on student achievements: studied model, student learning experience, and the lecturer educational background. A quantita...

Most student graduates in engineering schools are involved in engineering design, that is, the development of new products for which engineering thinking is required. Our literature survey, however, did not yield material pertaining to engineering design thinking in the field of electrical and electronic engineering. Therefore, we propose to clarif...

Most student graduates of engineering schools are involved in engineering design, that is, the development of new products for which engineering thinking is required. Our literature survey, however, did not yield material pertaining to engineering design thinking in the field of electrical and electronic engineering. Therefore, we propose to clarif...

Engineering thinking is a crucial part of the engineering profession. Lack of knowledge in this field encouraged us to inquire into the engineering thinking process. This article describes a study that deals with the characterization of engineering thinking. In order to clarify various aspects of the engineering cognitive process and to understand...

The rapid technological development in the area of electrical and electronic engineering has caused a continuous regeneration of knowledge in this field. Recent studies have indicated that engineering knowledge doubles every 10 years. The time constraints of the existing learning frame towards a B.Sc. degree, does not allow for the inclusion of all...

במכללה האקדמית להנדסה אורט בראודה מפתחים דרכים לקידום כישורי הלמידה של הסטודנטים, במטרה לשפר את הישגיהם האקדמיים ולהקטין נשירה. אחת הדרכים הנבחנות הינה שילוב של אבחון דינמי שבעקבותיו ניתן קורס העשרה אינסטרומנטאלית. במאמר זה מוצגות תוצאות ניסוי שנערך במכללה. תלמידי שנה א' מהמחלקה להנדסת חשמל ואלקטרוניקה עברו תהליך הכולל אבחון דינמי ובעקבותיו קורס הע...

Internship is an inseparable part of some curricula such as Medicine, Law, Accounting, Teaching and more disciplines, where internship is a crucial part of the curriculum. This is not the situation when it comes to technological studies such as Electronics. Is there any justification for this? This article reviews ten years experience of implementi...

This paper is part of an effort to establish design parameters for glucose-fueled room temperature membraneless alkaline fuel cells as possible electricity suppliers for portable devices. We report experimental results for three characteristics of glucose-fueled room temperature membraneless alkaline fuel cells: 1) polarization curve, 2) power dens...

The Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach enables the student to construct knowledge in his/her own way. Piaget, the founder of constructivism, saw the development of intelligence as a process involving the relationship between brain maturity and individual experience. The technology PBL (TPBL) approach confronts the student with a personal problem...