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Investigating student learning of the voltage and potential concepts in introductory electrical engineering

Voltage is one of the most fundamental concepts in electrical engineering, but nevertheless has been shown to be a difficult concept for many students. To help address those difficulties, we designed a tutorial worksheet similar to those published by the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington. In this activity, students were introduced to electric potential and compared and contrasted it to voltage. As electric potential and Kirchhoff's Voltage Law are closely related, we assumed learning about potential would help students gain a better qualitative understanding of voltage. Post-test and exam data from an introductory circuits course show that after the tutorial many students still had difficulties with voltage and potential. More than three quarters of the responses concerning voltage and potential were inconsistent. This suggests that most students were unable to link those two concepts. We therefore conclude that potential and voltage remain conceptually very different for students in their learning process. As tutorial worksheets have proved to be very effective in students overcoming conceptual difficulties, it is likely that there are specific difficulties with these concepts that have not yet been identified.