Peer Review

AC Circuits

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Oct 4, 2022 by Engineering

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

This is a comprehensive workbook in the area of AC electrical circuits with answers to odd numbered questions being found in Appendix B.

The workbook gives a brief review and overview of each topic followed by numerous exercises.

The topics covered are:

Module 1, the theory of AC signals.

Module 2, AC Circuits Math Background.

Module 3, AC sources with resistors, inductors, and capacitors (RLC circuits).

Module 4, Passive Filters.

Module 5, Transformers.

Module 6, Diodes and AC to DC Conversion.

Module 7, Operational Amplifiers (OpAmps).

There are four main types of questions for each topic: analysis, design, challenge and simulation.

Type of Material:

Open (Access) Workbook.

This is a workbook for AC electrical circuits and theorems.

Recommended Uses:

This book can work as a good text book for students to assist with homework,individual practice and revision.

It can also be used in class for lectures with the teacher expanding on each topic review given.

Technical Requirements:

Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers were used to access the material. It seems that all facilities are active for any browser.

A SPICE- based circuit simulator is needed for the simulation exercises.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

The open textbook is addressed to engineers and students of engineering degrees interested in learning the fundamentals of AC Circuits.

It quickly revises the concepts associated with AC electrical circuit analysis and provides practice questions in each area of analysis.

Target Student Population:

College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Professional.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Complex numbers, phasor analysis, matrices and basic Fourier analysis are the required mathematics skills needed.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

The book contains the basic core concepts in the discipline. The brief summary of the concepts makes it an ideal companion for study.

Solved exercises help the understanding of concepts.A list of proposed exercises for student’s homework and self-learning are included at the end of the book. The many exercises will help user to gain confidence and mastery of the various topics.

A list of open-link references is included for interested readers. The website includes an option for review or comments of external users.

Concerns:

The links of references need periodical update as internet addresses can change at any time.

No research sources were quoted.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

The concepts are built progressively. Relations between concepts are easily found by means on internal links of the book. The concise presentation of the concepts makes it an ideal revision tool for the user.

The approach of showing the practical application of AC circuits fundamentals ease the learning of concepts. This helps the student to see the practical applications of the concepts being taught without reliance on theoretical proofs which may be beyond their scope depending on the level of the student.

Concerns:

Only a broad learning objective was identified in the introduction of the workbook which was essentially to provide questions in the field of AC Electrical circuits.

The workbook does not identify the pre-requisites for each topic or identify explicitly the learning outcomes.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The visual design is engaging.

It can be downloaded in pdf or MS-Word format.

Web links are provided to external sites for background and/or extended information.

The brief review of the topics makes it an easy reference when the user is working on the exercises.

Other Issues and Comments:: The simulation exercises are not specific to any particular simulator.

The user can therefore use any available simulator or down load a free PSPICE simulator.
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