On the threshold: Affordances of online tutorials in the learning of threshold concepts

Abstract

According to threshold concept theory, in each academic discipline there exist concepts that once grasped allow new and previously inaccessible ways of perceiving and thinking about the subject to emerge [1]. Acquiring a threshold concept (TC) often resembles a phase transition as observed in other psychological perception-action dynamical systems [2]. Previous studies of student learning in introductory electronics have revealed areas where students get stuck [3]. In the present study we investigated the impact of multimodal, online tutorials on learning TCs.