Overcome learning obstacles in circuit network analysis with flowcharts

Electrical engineering introductury courses (EE 101) are said to be the most difficult. This paper shows a way to help students overcome typical problems in the analysis of electrical networks with series and parallel resistors, which are one of the biggest challenges for first year students. The expertise for network analysis has been elucidated with the "Decoding the Disciplines" approach. Besides, students behaviour when doing a problem solving task has been analysed with a game design approach to find elements for uplifting the lecturing. As a result the missing element of guidance and hints could be identified. Often students did not now where to start and how to proceed in circuit analysis. To guide the students during the solving process a flowchart is presented in this paper which helped students to tackle the problem solving.