A Web-Based Tool for a Power Electronics Course
Ana Pozo Ruz F. David Trujillo Aguilera
Departamento de Tecnología Electrónica
Universidad de Málaga
Málaga, Spain
apozo@uma.es
Abstract—This paper presents a computer-aided educational
package for the study of Power Electronics. This work is framed
within the guidelines established by the European Higher
Education Area, which promotes the active role of the students.
The software includes: a dynamic and interactive tool for
simulating steady-state ideal power electronics converters,
multimedia resources as video animations of operation of power
electronics circuits and self-evaluation test automatically
corrected and graded by the software. The software provided
highly favorable results when compared with students who did
not use it.
Keywords- power electronics; educational technology; electrical
engineering education; power converter simulation.
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, university education has undergone a
significant change to new models that encourage the active
role of students in the learning process [1] [2]. The European
Higher Education Area (EHEA) means an important change in
the teaching and learning process. It is necessary to involve
more efficiently to the students and encourage their
independent study and active participation. This change has
occurred at the same time as the increase in the development
and use of new information technology in education:
multimedia applications, simulation tools, educational
platforms, among others [3] [4].
The traditional form of teaching in the classroom can be
complemented by the use of interactive systems based on
computers. Use of these systems has significantly improved
student learning and teacher’s educational work [5].
Learning technologies employed both inside and outside
the classroom are increasingly influencing the nature of
teaching and learning. Web-based learning technologies are
enabling powerful possibilities for learning activities outside
the classroom, both in preparation for in-class activities and in
following them up. Of particular importance among these
possibilities is the opportunity to address learners and
individuals, assessing their strengths and weaknesses and
adapting learning activities in response [6].
The web-based learning (more widely, e-learning) is the
use of telecommunication technology to deliver information
for education and training and can be considered as an
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
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Departamento de Tecnología Electrónica
Universidad de Málaga
Málaga, Spain
fdtrujillo@uma.es
innovation for many students. Innovation is the situationally
new development and introduction of knowledge-derived
tools, artifacts, and devices by which people extend and
interact with their environment [7]. Colleges, universities and
private training companies are converting more and more
courses online. With a personal computer (PC) connected to
internet, web-based learning allows students to attend courses
anywhere at any time. Before the telecommunication
technologies became easily accessible, distance learning was
delivered using mail correspondence. For interactivity,
learners would have to mail back the assignments to receive
feedback from the instructor or go to the tutoring center for
face-to-face interaction experience. But, nowadays, web-based
learning has grown into a revolutionary way of learning due to
the rapid development of information and communication
technologies; and web-based learning has made distance
learning highly interactive. Students may obtain an intimate
learning experience without attending a brick-and-mortar
facility. Many of the prior research on web-based learning are
concerned with learning effectiveness and performance.
Therefore, web-based learning is emerging as the paradigm of
modern education.
In case of power electronics, teachers of this subject found
that students had difficulties to understand each operation of
the converters, mainly due to their different performance
depending on control parameters and load specified. Usually,
it is very difficult to illustrate these concepts in a traditional
classroom using static slides and blackboard [8].
Therefore, thanks to this web-based tool, a new and
significant innovation is introduced in the subject, in order to
improve the level of teaching and encourage self-learning.
 Watching videos self-explanatory about the
performance of the power electronics converters.
 Dynamic simulations of the switched power converters
with a simple click.
 Self-evaluation test corrected and graded automatically
by the software.
The main objective of the web-based tool is to help in the
process learning of power electronics students, thanks to the
use of videos, circuit simulations and tests that show, clearly,
the performance of a wide set of power converter topologies.
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 The use of this tool during the last academic year has parameter values; and graphically, through the final
significantly improved understanding of the subject of power waveforms.
electronics, in turn encouraging active student participation in
their own learning process. So, with this project, the
explanations of the power electronics subject could be
performed with animations and videos. The lectures had an
important range of possibilities in order to capture the interest
of the university students.
The paper is structured as follows. In section 2, the
description of the web-based tool is defined. Section 3
explains the obtained results after using the presented tool in
the Power Electronics subject, at the Escuela Universitaria
Politécnica and the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros
Industriales, of the Universidad de Málaga. Finally, section 4
draws the main conclusions of this project and some future
works. Main page of the Power Electronics tutorial

II. DESCRIPTION OF THE WEB-BASED TOOL
The developed tool is intended to support the study of
power electronics, in a special way that aimed at
undergraduate engineering students. The computer-aided
educational package has been developed in a Windows
environment and it is embedded in a www-html page.
The tool is divided into three modules:
 Module I: Tutorial. Analysis of the switched power
converter performance.
 Module II: Simulation. Simulation of several power
converter topologies.
 Module III: Self-evaluation. Self-evaluation test
corrected and graded, automatically.
Each of these three modules corresponds to the natural
process of study of the subject:
 Step I: Knowing, deeply, the operation of the
converters and display the most significant waveforms
with a certain control and a certain load.
 Step II: Simulating the same converters analyzed with
different conditions of control and load.
 Step III: Self-evaluation test to determine if the
contents and concepts studied have been assimilated.
From the main page of the web-based tool (Fig. 1) it is
possible to access to the three modules, which are explained
now:
A. Module I: Tutorial
In this module, the performance principles of switched
power converters are explained by means of videos or
animations. These videos are programmed using Adobe Flash
multimedia software [9], software designed for creating Web
animations. Flash provides a great interactivity and it is
compatible with a wide set of software. With the animations,
the students can study, step by step, the analysis of the power
electronics converters. The displaying of this analysis is
performed in two manners: analytically, showing the control
A total of 24 videos, for the different topologies of
switched power converters, are implemented in this web-based
tool. Each video contains the following parts (Fig. 2):
 The heading, with the next information: the name of
the switched power converter to analyze, the control
parameters and the analytical result of the converter
state (Fig. 2a).
 The electronic diagram of the switched power
converter (Fig. 2b).
 A graphic screen so as to display the final waveforms:
input voltage (direct, alternating, single-phase, tree-
phase), output voltage, output current and voltage in
the semiconductors (Fig. 2c).
 And a set of buttons. These buttons allow controlling
the animation, as a film: forward continuous mode,
reverse continuous mode, forward step by step, reverse
step by step, stop, go to the animation beginning, and g
o to the animation end (Fig. 2d).
To run these animations, it is feasible thanks to a pull-
down menu in the left side of the web-based tool. In this
menu, the names of the several switched power converters are
indicated. And all the implemented topologies, with several
both loads and control schemes are shown in Table I.

Power converter animations: a) Heading, b) Circuit, c) Waveforms, d)

Control buttons

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 For this reason, after the students have understood the
performance of a particular power converter, thanks to the
TABLE I. TOPOLOGIES, LOADS AND CONTROL SCHEMES Module II (Simulations), they can modify all the control
R load parameters that they consider necessary to study, and they can
Half-
Line- bridge
extend the possibilities of analysis of power converters,
frecuency Single- RL load participating in their learning process.
diode phase R load
rectifiers Full- B. Module II: Simulations
bridge RL load
In this module, the students can simulate the switched
Half- R load power converters with any load and control schemes.
bridge RL load Nowadays, there are much simulation software like PSpice,
Single-
phase
EMPT, or PSIM [10] [11], being PSpice the most used to
Full- R load simulate the circuits of Power Electronics.
Line- bridge RL load
frecuency PSpice [12] [13] is fitted with physical models of
phase- R load, continuous semiconductors and switching devices. Physical modeling
controlled current conduction produces well-detailed results, but leads to high calculation
rectifiers and effort and often introduces convergence problems during the
RLVd load,
inverters
Three- Full- continuous current transient simulation. Moreover, PSpice needs to design the
phase bridge conduction control and excitation circuits of power semiconductors.
Carga RLVd,
discontinuous current At this stage, we remember that the main objective of
conduction this tutorial is to help the students in the study of the
performance of the switched power converters. For this
Step-down Buck
converter reason, it is necessary to simplify the simulations so that the
students can only choice the power converter to study, with
Step-up Boost both control parameters and load. So the simplification is
Single controlled switch converter
achieved by means of the use of “black boxes”.
Buck-boost converter
MATLAB/SIMULINK software [14] is widely used for the
Cúk dc-dc converter simulation of almost all type of dynamic systems. It is
dc-dc
switch-mode PWM with bipolar employed for teaching and learning since provides a series of
converters voltage switching, R load standard routines, toolboxes and libraries. The library
PWM with bipolar “SimPowerSystem” is a Simulink specific library for power
Full-bridge dc-dc voltage switching, RL load electronics (Fig. 3). The use of MATLAB/SIMULINK, for
converter power electronics simulations, offers an excellent graphical
PWM with unipolar
voltage switching, R load interface and a very short simulation time.
PWM with unibipolar
voltage switching, RL load
PWM with bipolar
Switch- voltage switching, R load
mode dc-ac Single-phase full-bridge
inverters PWM with unipolar
voltage switching, R load
Square-wave
operation, R load
ac-ac Bidirectional, R load
phase- Single-phase
controlled Bidirectional, RL load

Thanks to these several videos, the web-based tutorial is a

powerful tool which can be used to study the switched power
converters. The animation interactivity is supported by the fact
of controlling the flow of each animation with the objective of
knowing in detail the performance, step by step, of a particular
studied conversion.
However, these animations are “static” in the sense of they
always run in the same way. The students can not study the
power converters modifying other control parameters, like the
thyristor turn-on phase or changing the load of the circuit.

The SimPowerSystem library

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 In Fig. 6, we can notice an example of ac-cc converter
To use MATLAB/SIMULINK is very important and
essential because this software allows simulating the designed
circuits or systems obtaining the performance results in the
respective waveforms and graphics. Moreover,
MATLAB/SIMULINK offers the chance to modify both
control and load parameters in order to analyze the circuit
performance in several situations. The necessity of simplifying
the circuits in terms of “black boxes”, quoted above, is
achieved by means of the MATLAB/SIMULINK
environment, with only the reference of the inputs and outputs
that are specified.
With the objective in mind of providing a powerful and
didactic tool, every switched power converter has been hidden
into a “black box”, labeled with the name of the converter. By
clicking twice over the “black box”, a new window will open.
The control parameters to modify and to simulate will be
included in this window. With the label named “Look under
mask”, the student can notice the hardware circuit
implementation. To comprise all the switched power converter
topologies, 26 circuits have been implemented as “black
boxes”.
Fig. 4 shows an example of a MATLAB/SIMULINK
simulation of a bidirectional single-phase ac-ac power
converter. Thus, in Fig. 4a, the MATLAB/SIMULINK circuit is
drawn, the representation by clicking over the label “Look
under mask”. The Fig. 4b shows the masked circuit, as it is
noticed by the student, under the “black box”. Fig. 4c focuses
on the window in which the student can modify the control
parameters: load and thyristor turn-on phase.
After the circuit simulation, it is possible to display the
result waveforms. In Fig. 5 are drawn these simulation
waveforms for the example of the converter in Fig. 4: output
voltage, output current and thyristor current.
C. Module III: Self-evaluation
Finally, the web-based tool includes a module titled “Self-
evaluation”. This module contains several tests so that the
students can check the knowledge of both the theory and some
practice problems. Three question types are defined:
 Fill in the blank, where responses can be strings (single
and multiline), integers and floating numbers.
 True/false, depending on whether the statement is
correct or incorrect.
 Multiple choices, where choices can be text or images.
Bidirectional single-phase ac-ac converter: a) SIMLINK circuit, b)
The free software Hot Potatoes [15] has been used for the Masked circuit, c) Control parameter modification
implementation of these self-corrected questionnaires.
questions.
By clicking over the left button entitled “questionnaires”, a
sub-menu appears where the students can choice the power
converter to self-evaluate: ac-cc, cc-cc, cc-ac and ac-ac. The
III. METHODOLOGY AND OBTAINED RESULTS
questions will be answered in sequence. While an incorrect
option is selected, the next question does not display. The tool The interactive web-based tool are using as a help for the
records the attempts of each question, providing the final teaching and learning of Power Electronics subject both the
punctuation when test ends. Industrial Electronics Engineering Bachelor and Industrial
Engineering Bachelor, at the Universidad de Málaga during

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the last 2 academic years. The subject, in both bachelors, is
composed of 60 hours, distributed in 4 week hours, along 15
weeks.
Figure 1. Simulation results of a bidirectional single-phase ac-ac converter
A question example
These 60 hours are enough for the satisfactory teaching of
Power Electronics subject but not for the correct and wide
comprehension of the theory concepts by the students, due to
their difficulty. So, students must achieve an important effort
to study, understand and work fluently with the theory of this
subject. This is an issue attached to this subject.
The use of the interactive tool has improved the needed
time for the students to understand correctly both the theory
and problems concepts. Moreover, thanks to this web-based
tool, an important concern increase for this subject has been
noticed.
The used methodology is described as follows: once the
lecturer has explained, in classroom, the theory performance
of a concrete switched power converter, the students make use
of the interactive tool in order to secure their study. They can
run each video as many times as they need, analyzing the
performance of the power converter, step by step, so that they
can focus on the main circuit variables: voltages and currents.
After understanding the power converter performance, the
lecturer proposes a set of exercises, modifying both the control
scheme and the circuit load. The students use this interactive
tool to simulate the power converter taking into account the
conditions defined by lecturers and noticing the simulation
results.
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Finally, the self-evaluation test allows the student to verify
the assimilated knowledge.
Once the students are using this interactive tool for the
study of Power Electronics subject, the passing ratio has
increased from 55% to 80%. Students consider very positive
and useful the development of this interactive tool, making
easy the study of the power converters in any situation.
IV. CONCLUSIONS AND FORTHCOMING WORK
The implemented interactive web-based tutorial, as a help
tool for switched power converter studying, has assumed an
important innovation in the teaching-learning process,
according to the paradigms of the EHEA, encouraging
independent study and active participation of students.
The interactive tool has composed of three modules,
following the natural sequence of the teaching-learning
process in Power Electronics subject: the tutorial module, that
includes the animations of the switched power converters; the
simulation module, based on MATLAB/SIMULINK
environment, to analyze the power converters under different
conditions of control schemes and circuit loads; and the self-
evaluation module, with on-line corrected tests. Students
consider very useful the use of this interactive tool, making
easy the study of the power converters in any situation, in the
last 2 academic years.
In order to make possible the sharing use in a virtual space,
like internet, we consider very interesting to embody, the
interactive tool, in the virtual educational platform of Power
Electronics, available in the next link:
http://www.uma.es/investigadores/grupos/electronica_potencia
Furthermore, to update the educational tool with more
interactivity, other software have been studied, like the Java
author software, named EasyJava [16].
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors give thanks to their students of Power
Electronics subject at the Escuela Universitaria Politécnica
and the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales,
of the Universidad de Málaga. Their involvement, work and
commitment have been essential to the development of the
explained tool.
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