Syllabus for ELE-211

DC CIRCUITS


COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course covers the fundamental concepts of electricity, batteries, DC series, parallel and complex circuits, electrical conductors, electromagnetism, magnetic circuits, and DC electrical indicating instruments.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

After completing this course, you should be able to: 

  1. Explain the difference between ac and dc electricity.
  2. Explain the causes of and differences between electric current, voltage, and power.
  3. State at least five methods of producing dc voltage sources.
  4. List the basic units of measurement for voltage, current, power, resistance, capacitance, and inductance.
  5. Use Ohm's law, Kirchhoff voltage and current laws, maximum power transfer theory, and superposition theory to solve circuit problems containing resistors, capacitors, and inductors.
  6. Draw the Thevenin equivalent circuit for a circuit containing two power sources and up to three resistors, and convert a Thevenin circuit to the Norton equivalent circuit.
  7. Describe the behavior of both a capacitor and an inductor in a dc circuit.
  8. Calculate the current and voltage in both an RC circuit and an inductive circuit.
  9. Describe the relationship between current and magnetism.
  10. Use the right-hand rule to determine the north and south poles of an electromagnet.
  11. Determine the MMF and flux density of an electromagnet.
  12. Identify from a picture digital and analog voltmeters, current meters, ohmmeters, and multimeters.
  13. Use a scientific calculator to solve circuit problems with values given using metric prefixes.
  14. Use circuit simulation software to simulate series and parallel circuits.

COURSE MATERIALS

You will need the following materials to complete your coursework. Some course materials may be free, open source, or available from other providers. You can access free or open-source materials by clicking the links provided below or in the module details documents. To purchase course materials, please visit the University's textbook supplier.

Required Textbook

Required Software

Note: NI Circuit Design Suite is a Windows-based product and will not run on Macs. You can run this software and other Windows software on your Mac using Apple's Boot Camp technology or third-party virtualization tools like Parallels or VMWare Fusion. These tools make it possible to run Mac OSX and a Windows operating system side by side. This solution will require a Windows license.

Required Equipment

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

To participate fully in course activities, you need to have daily access to a personal computer. In addition, your computer system must meet the following minimum specifications:

COURSE STRUCTURE

DC Circuits is a three-credit online course, consisting of eight modules. Modules include learning objectives, study materials, a written assignment, and a module-ending test. Modules 3–6 also include circuit simulation problems that you complete as a group activity. Module titles are listed below.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

For your formal work in the course, you are required to complete eight written assignments, participate in four group activities involving circuit simulation problems, and take eight online module tests. You are also required to take a proctored midterm examination. See below for more details.

Consult the Course Calendar for assignment due dates.

Promoting Originality

One or more of your course activities may utilize a tool designed to promote original work and evaluate your submissions for plagiarism. More information about this tool is available in this document.

Written Assignments

You are required to complete eight written assignments that consist of short-answer, essay-type questions and end-of-chapter problems selected from the textbook.

Online Participation

In addition to an ungraded Introductions Forum in Module 1, DC Circuits requires you to participate in four  group activities involving circuit simulation problems. Click link for the activities' ground rules.

Communication and collaboration among fellow students and with the mentor is a critical component of online learning. The circuit simulation problems provide an opportunity for you to apply textbook concepts and computational skills within an interactive team setting. In so doing, you can benefit from the help of your classmates and share your understanding of electrical circuits and chapter concepts.

You will be evaluated both on your group participation (i.e., how well you fulfill your team responsibilities of posting solutions, commenting on the work of others, and participating in team decisions) and on the quality of your work (i.e., the correctness and thoroughness of the final team reports).

Due dates for posting responses to the simulation problems are given in the Course Calendar.

See Modules 3–6 for specific directions for completing the group activities and circuit simulation problems.

Module Tests

At the conclusion of each module, following the written assignment, is an online module test. The test for Module 1 consists of ten multiple-choice questions and is 25 minutes long. All other module tests have twenty multiple-choice questions and are up to 45 minutes long.

Consult the Course Calendar for test deadlines.

Midterm Examination

You are required to take a proctored midterm examination. The exam requires that you use the University's Online Proctor Service (OPS). Please refer to the "Examinations and Proctors" section of the Online Student Handbook (see General Information area of the course Web site) for further information about scheduling and taking online exams and for all exam policies and procedures. You are strongly advised to schedule your exam within the first week of the semester. Consult the Course Calendar for the scheduling of this examination.

The proctored midterm exam covers all material assigned in Modules 1, 2, 3, and 4. It is two hours long and consists of 25 multiple-choice questions like those on the module tests.

The exam is open book, but not open notes. In this regard you are permitted to use only the authorized textbook. You are not allowed to consult a solutions manual, notes of any kind (including graded or ungraded activities), or any other reference sources or sources of information. The use of blank scratch paper for doing math calculations is permitted during online test administrations.

Note: You are permitted to use a calculator (scientific, graphing, or financial) but may not use a calculator on a phone, PDA, or any similar device.

Statement about Cheating

You are on your honor not to cheat during the exam. Cheating means:

If there is evidence that you have cheated or plagiarized in your exam, the exam will be declared invalid, and you will fail the course.

GRADING AND EVALUATION

Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:

All activities will receive a numerical grade of 0–100. You will receive a score of 0 for any work not submitted. Your final grade in the course will be a letter grade. Letter grade equivalents for numerical grades are as follows:

A

=

93–100

C+

=

78–79

A–

=

90–92

C

=

73–77

B+

=

88–89

C–

=

70–72

B

=

83–87

D

=

60–69

B–

=

80–82

F

=

Below 60

To receive credit for the course, you must earn a letter grade of C or better (for an area of study course) or D or better (for a course not in your area of study), based on the weighted average of all assigned course work (e.g., exams, assignments, discussion postings, etc.).

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

First Steps to Success

To succeed in this course, take the following first steps:

Study Tips

Consider the following study tips for success:

ACADEMIC POLICIES

To ensure success in all your academic endeavors and coursework at Thomas Edison State University, familiarize yourself with all administrative and academic policies including those related to academic integrity, course late submissions, course extensions, and grading policies.

For more, see:

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