Finding analogies and/or relations between concepts and processes that have been addressed within different contexts and viewing them from multiple perspectives may be useful in helping students enhance their comprehension on the topics involved.

As an example, the creation of oscillation beats and the wave-related concepts of wave-packets and the group velocity are associated with the seemingly unrelated process of amplitude modulation (AM), more specifically the double-sideband suppressed-carrier amplitude modulation (DSB-SC-AM). Oscillation beats as well as the concepts of wave-packets and the group velocity cause difficulties to students when it comes to explain their physical meaning. The advantage of associating the above concepts with the DSB-SC-AM process is that, regarding AM, the identification of the information and the carrier signals becomes a straightforward procedure. That makes it easier for students to comprehend the physical meaning of the parameters involved in the oscillation beats as well as the actual meaning of the group velocity as the speed at which the information is transmitted.

The above approach was applied in a two-teaching-hour lecture in the framework of the “Optical Communications” course at the Electrical & Electronic Engineering Educators Dept., School for Pedagogical & Technological Education (ASPETE), Athens, Greece. Apart from being employed in the electrical and electronic industry, graduates of the above department can work as teachers in technological high schools and most probably they will have to teach topics such as amplitude modulation, oscillation and waves. The procedure was evaluated by means of a short questionnaire that should be answered by means of a 5-grade Likert scale. Students’ answers showed that the above described approach had helped them enhance their understanding on the concepts and the processes involved. Future implementations of the described approach may include the use of gaming tools such as Kahoot.

Keywords: Engineering Education, Electrical Engineering Education, Amplitude modulation, Beats, Group velocity, Wave-packet.