Electrical engineering students in our department take a year-long series of courses which introduces electrical engineering as a discipline and provides good grounding in engineering problem solving and programing. We have recently attempted to make the second course in the sequence more engaging by applying active learning techniques, including assigned reading and exercises prior to lectures, in-class exercises using a classroom interaction system, and programming exercises during lectures. Our results are mixed: while we think that students have learned more than if we had not used these techniques, we have not completely won over our students. While using an e-book was valuable, we believe that exercises within the e-book were not sufficient and their combination with in-class exercises did not provide sufficient training for students to feel comfortable with the programming. In terms of student problem solving skills, we continue to be puzzled by their difficulties despite their already quite extensive math background. There are also uncertainties with respect to our students’ preparedness to take larger responsibility for their education as evidenced by their comments and the fact that reminders were required to keep students doing their assigned preparation work.