Computer Simulation as Preparation for Electronics Laboratory

This paper presents the effectiveness of computer simulation application as a medium for students to implement the task or preparation before physical experiment in electronics laboratory can be carried out. This approach is proposed as an alternative for written pre-laboratory questions which has been put into practice previously. Students are given pre-laboratory questions in a form of computer simulation which related to the experiment, in order to assist the students in their preparation prior to entering the laboratory and be able to understand the experiment objectives. As a result, based on conducted survey on 55 students registered for Electrical and Electronics Laboratory course, the proposed approach has proven its effectiveness in assisting student's preparations to understand experiment methodology in laboratory since a virtual experiment has been done prior to the laboratory experiment. Moreover, this method also saves a lot of laboratory experimental time, and able to develop a self-confidence among students in doing electronics laboratory experiment by themselves.