How to increase students' interest in a basic electric circuits course?

In order to increase students' interest in the basic electric circuits course in particular and in electrical engineering in general, the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology has decided to integrate into the course examples reflecting the various topics of electrical engineering, with an emphasis on digital design and microelectronics. The study described in the paper examined whether there was a difference in the motivation towards the study of electrical engineering between students who took part in the new format of the course (which includes the examples) and that of students who attended the course in its original format (without examples). One hundred and twenty-three sophomore electrical engineering students took part in the research. The findings of the study, which used quantitative instruments, reveal a significant gap between the intrinsic motivation of students who participated in the course in its new format and that of their peers.