Are Open-Source Electronics Innovation Drivers? A Context-Paradox Study of User-behaviours in a Nigerian Polytechnic Setting

Abstract

Open-source electronics and platforms have promoted inclusive learning for many learners and teachers. The ubiquity of Open-source electronics has attracted behaviours that have paradoxically affected the development of critical thinking, problem-solving, high-level thinking, and electronic design skills in some cohorts of users.  A non-hypothetical, context-paradox study of a cohort of physically archived capstone project reports in the repository of an engineering department of a Polytechnic is presented in this study. The study examined how open-source electronics and platforms have contributed to driving innovation and developing critical thinking, problem-solving, and innovative skills in students who have used them for their capstone projects. We applied qualitative and quantitative methodologies to identify and review 738 capstone project reports physically archived between 2002 and 2021 for elements of innovation and originality based on circuit schematics and descriptive metadata. Semi-structured interviews of a targeted student population were used to complete the data collection instruments. The findings from the study suggested that the efficacy of open-source electronics as innovation drivers is behaviour-dependent on how the users leverage them to incubate innovative and inventive skills.  We recommend departmental cultural changes, curriculum updates, entrenchment of codes of ethics and paradigmatic changes to pedagogical methods, and collaboration with strategic stakeholders and professional societies, for a new regime of capstone project governance, with consequences for attaining the sustainable development goals for quality education.