IMPROVEMENT OF A LABORATORY COURSE IN NETWORK ANALYSIS - LEARNING TO VALIDATE KNOWLEDGE IN AN EXPERIMENTAL WAY

A laboratory course in Network Analysis has been thoroughly revised. P assing rates, averaged over four years, rose from 48% to 79%. The majo r goal of the course was to teach students to experiment and investiga te in a systematic way, thus validating knowledge by themselves. This paper reports on the changes introduced and the results obtained. Impo rtant features are that difficulties that the students meet in measuri ng or calculation procedures are distinguished from the basic approach of investigation and practiced in separate assignments, and that the necessary information is complete, concise, general and understandable , but not cookbook-like. Help that students needed from the teaching a ssistants during the labs diminished considerably, leaving assessment of the logbooks as their main task.