2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Recent studies suggest that undergraduate engineering students often struggle with elective course selection due to various factors, including information gaps, limited technical advising and guidance, and perceived tradeoffs between risk and reward. Moreover, research indicates that professors and classes are among the most influential factors shaping students’ intra-major specialization choices although the curricula in most universities are not typically designed to intentionally influence such decisions. Effective elective decision-making is of essential importance since it directly influences student’s academic trajectories and both short- and long-term career development.

Foundational electrical circuits courses are widely regarded as the gateway to electrical engineering. They serve as prerequisites for most electrical engineering electives since electrical circuits are the foundation of nearly all fields in electrical engineering. Moreover, these courses introduce electrical engineering students to system-level thinking while developing essential problem-solving and analytical skills. Beyond providing foundational knowledge, to what extent can foundational electrical circuits courses support electrical engineering students in making informed decisions about their elective course selections?

This paper investigates the hypothesis that foundational electrical circuits teaching can support informed elective decision-making among electrical engineering students. In this regard, we propose pedagogical practices to connect foundational electrical circuit concepts, such as Thevenin’s and Norton’s Theorems, Maximum Power Transfer Theorem, and magnetically coupled circuits, to students’ elective decision-making through exposure to real-world contexts, practical applications, and diverse career pathway opportunities in electrical engineering. An anonymous survey with over 50 electrical circuit students in electrical engineering is used to gather perceptions, feedback, and validate the effectiveness of the proposed pedagogical practices as well as provide recommendations for future work.