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Microfabrication is a critical area to many branches of science and engineering. However, to many students accustomed to seeing transistors as things that come in a lab kit, it is an obscure subtopic of their discipline. Beginning in 2009, the authors undertook a broad multidisciplinary approach to bring microfabrication into all aspects of the Binghamton University science and engineering curriculum. This program was coupled with a comprehensive assessment activity to evaluate the program's effectiveness and continuously improve it year by year. This paper reports the details of the implementation process, the techniques that were found to bring a hands-on experience to large classes, and the lessons learned from the assessments of this program to make this topic a mainstream part of engineering and science education.

Low-cost personal computers, wireless access technologies, the Internet, and computer-equipped classrooms allow the design of novel and complementary methodologies for teaching digital information security in electrical engineering curricula. The challenges of the current digital information era require experts who are effectively able to counteract piracy, forgery, copyright infringement, and so on. Digital watermarking is one possible technique for fighting piracy, which consists of the insertion of invisible but robust information to protect the data. In this paper, a new teaching approach, designed for testing student skills and progressing in multimedia data protection, is presented. This consists of a distributed security game where students compete by first using the developed watermarking techniques and then attacking each other's methods, thus verifying their robustness. Groups of students from different universities and countries play against each other, trying to compromise other teams' hiding systems while protecting their own data from attacks. The proposed methodology can be considered as an appealing approach for stimulating learning, cooperation, and team competition. The effectiveness of the teaching method is verified by a student survey and their academic results. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

Medical imaging systems (MIS) constitute an important emergent subdiscipline of engineering studies. In the context of electrical and electronics engineering (EEE) education, MIS courses cover physics, instrumentation, data acquisition, image formation, modeling, and quality assessment of various modalities. Many well-structured MIS courses are available for EEE curricula, providing introduction to all modern diagnostic imaging systems. However, in these courses the laboratory component is limited to image formation and analysis. This paper proposes a wide range of experiments that incorporate various disciplines of EEE education into MIS courses. These experiments are designed to integrate knowledge that students have acquired previously from key EEE courses (such as circuit theory, differential equations, wave theory, energy conversion, control theory, and signal processing) into their new MIS knowledge. The proposed laboratory was adapted to a senior-year MIS class in the EEE Department of Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey. This paper presents the application of these new laboratory experiments, along with the assessment results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Contribution: This paper demonstrates curricular modules that incorporate engineering model-based approaches, including concepts related to circuits, systems, modeling, electrophysiology, programming, and software tutorials that enhance learning in undergraduate neuroscience courses. These modules can also be integrated into other neuroscience courses. Background: Educators in biological and physical sciences urge incorporation of computation and engineering approaches into biology. Model-based approaches can provide insights into neural function; prior studies show these are increasingly being used in research in biology. Reports about their integration in undergraduate neuroscience curricula, however, are scarce. There is also a lack of suitable courses to satisfy engineering students’ interest in the challenges in the growing area of neural sciences. Intended Outcomes: (1) Improved student learning in interdisciplinary neuroscience; (2) enhanced teaching by neuroscience faculty; (3) research preparation of undergraduates; and 4) increased interdisciplinary interactions. Application Design: An interdisciplinary undergraduate neuroscience course that incorporates computation and model-based approaches and has both software- and wet-lab components, was designed and co-taught by colleges of engineering and arts and science. Findings: Model-based content improved learning in neuroscience for three distinct groups: 1) undergraduates; 2) Ph.D. students; and 3) post-doctoral researchers and faculty. Moreover, the importance of the content and the utility of the software in enhancing student learning was rated highly by all these groups, suggesting a critical role for engineering in shaping the neuroscience curriculum. The model for cross-training also helped facilitate interdisciplinary research collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contribution: This paper describes a highly flexible design for a master’s-level server administration course that uses updated technologies, addresses the most important course design challenges and extracts useful feedback from student work. The main contribution of this design is eliminating the self-regulation challenge students encounter in similar highly flexible computer-related courses. This is attributed to the introduction of orientation lectures and a competitive element; these may have helped students to achieve their goals on time. Background: The Web server administration course on the master’s of the Web engineering program was intended to inculcate a series of competences, such as common administration techniques, procedures to increase security, efficient website deployment, and an introduction to clusters and infrastructure deployment automation. The course generally failed to transmit these competencies effectively; complaints were made about the difficulty of the course and the low applicability of its contents. Intended Outcomes: The design facilitates students finding assessment activities that better suit their profiles or previous experience, and enables them to customize their assessment, thus encouraging them and giving future value to their work. Application Design: The course design maximizes assessment flexibility by providing students with many optional activities from which to choose. It also promotes a healthy competitive spirit to improve student’s motivation and results. Findings: Complaints about the difficulty or lack of applicability were no longer made. The course is highly valued by the students, achieving a very high pass rate and average score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive suite of pedagogical resources is presented that will enable an instructor to embed grid computing concepts in a traditional distributed system course. Rapidly advancing Internet technologies and ever expanding application domains have created excitement in teaching distributed systems. Many fundamental concepts developed decades earlier, such as remote procedure calls and multithreading, have come to play key roles in modern distributed systems. Standards such as eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) have been developed to enable interoperability among heterogeneous distributed systems. However, a plethora of new paradigms, a wide variety of technological choices, and short cycles of technological obsolescence challenge the introduction of these important concepts into a distributed systems course. This paper describes how the author addressed these challenges in teaching grid computing. The paper also provides details of the resources developed during this process. The pedagogical resource kit developed includes course curriculum, lecture notes, a set of laboratory assignments, a Globus Toolkit-based experimental grid adapted to classroom assignments, and valuable lessons learned from the course offerings during the past two years. The material provided in this paper is expected to help to ‘jumpstart’ educators considering the introduction of grid computing into their curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a worldwide trend to modernize old power grid infrastructures to form future smart grids, which will achieve efficient, flexible energy consumption by using the latest technologies in communication, computing, and control. Smart grid initiatives are moving power systems curricula toward smart grids. Although the components of smart grids fall within the broader discipline of electrical and computer engineering, undergraduate students are rarely assigned single design projects that require classic power systems knowledge combined with communication, computing, and control. Therefore, as a significant step toward potential curriculum changes, this paper presents such a project, a smart home test bed based on the pedagogical model of project-based learning (PBL) for undergraduate education. The proposed test bed allows undergraduates to gain key knowledge in smart grid topics, such as flattening demand peaks, real-time price response, wireless sensor networks, machine learning, pattern recognition, embedded system programming, user interface design, circuit design, and databases. This is well aligned with smart grid initiatives and provides a platform for students to develop their creativity in engineering design. It also offers real-life examples to be used for raising general public awareness of energy conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Microfabrication is a critical area to many branches of science and engineering. However, to many students accustomed to seeing transistors as things that come in a lab kit, it is an obscure subtopic of their discipline. Beginning in 2009, the authors undertook a broad multidisciplinary approach to bring microfabrication into all aspects of the Binghamton University science and engineering curriculum. This program was coupled with a comprehensive assessment activity to evaluate the program's effectiveness and continuously improve it year by year. This paper reports the details of the implementation process, the techniques that were found to bring a hands-on experience to large classes, and the lessons learned from the assessments of this program to make this topic a mainstream part of engineering and science education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Contribution: This paper examined student effort and performance in an introductory programming course with respect to student-held implicit theories and self-efficacy. Background: Implicit theories and self-efficacy help in understanding academic success, which must be considered when developing effective learning strategies for programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Course objectives, like research objectives and product requirements, help provide clarity and direction for faculty and students. Unfortunately, course and laboratory objectives are not always clearly stated. Without a clear set of objectives, it can be hard to design a learning experience and determine whether students are achieving the intended outcomes of the course or laboratory. In this paper, a common set of laboratory objectives, concepts, and components of a laboratory apparatus for undergraduate control systems laboratories were identified. A panel of 40 control systems faculty members completed a multi-round Delphi survey to bring them toward consensus on the common aspects of their laboratories. These panelists identified 15 laboratory objectives, 26 concepts, and 15 components common to their laboratories. Then an 45 additional faculty members and practitioners completed a follow-up survey to gather feedback on the results. In both surveys, each participant rated the importance of each item. While average ratings differed slightly between the two groups, the order in which the items were ranked was similar. Important examples of common learning objectives include connecting theory to what is implemented in the laboratory, designing controllers, and modeling systems. The most common component in both groups was MathWorks software. Some of the common concepts include block diagrams, stability, and PID control. Defining common aspects of undergraduate control systems laboratories enables common development, detailed comparisons, and simplified adaptation of equipment and experiments between campuses and programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hands-on experiments are essential for computer network security education. Existing laboratory solutions usually require significant effort to build, configure, and maintain and often do not support reconfigurability, flexibility, and scalability. This paper presents a cloud-based virtual laboratory education platform called V-Lab that provides a contained experimental environment for hands-on experiments using virtualization technologies (such as Xen or KVM Cloud Platform) and OpenFlow switches. The system can be securely accessed through OpenVPN, and students can remotely control the virtual machines (VMs) and perform the experimental tasks. The V-Lab platform also offers an interactive Web GUI for resource management and a social site for knowledge sharing and contribution. By using a flexible and configurable design, V-Lab integrates pedagogical models into curriculum design and provides a progressive learning path with a series of experiments for network security education. Since summer 2011, V-Lab has served more than 1000 students from six courses across over 20 experiments. The evaluation demonstrates that the platform and curriculum have produced excellent results and helped students understand and build up computer security knowledge to solve real-world problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a graduate course project on computer vision. The aim of the project is to detect and recognize traffic signs in video sequences recorded by an on-board vehicle camera. This is a demanding problem, given that traffic sign recognition is one of the most challenging problems for driving assistance systems. Equally, it is motivating for the students given that it is a real-life problem. Furthermore, it gives them the opportunity to appreciate the difficulty of real-world vision problems and to assess the extent to which this problem can be solved by modern computer vision and pattern classification techniques taught in the classroom. The learning objectives of the course are introduced, as are the constraints imposed on its design, such as the diversity of students' background and the amount of time they and their instructors dedicate to the course. The paper also describes the course contents, schedule, and how the project-based learning approach is applied. The outcomes of the course are discussed, including both the students' marks and their personal feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to share the experience gained in, and the efforts made toward, introducing and implementing a new course in the challenging and important area of geophysical signal processing at the Electrical Engineering (EE) Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The new course, titled “Geo-Signal Processing,” was offered both at the graduate level and as a special topics course to undergraduates. The course was developed in collaboration with the Earth Sciences Department at KFUPM. This paper contributes new information because it stresses the multidisciplinary aspects of digital signal processing (DSP) technologies when applied to estimating the Earth's layered structure on the basis of seismic data. Unlike many Earth sciences seismic data processing courses, this Geo-Signal Processing course also emphasizes that the perspective taken by those working in DSP is different from that taken by geophysicists. The course presents DSP with particular emphasis on seismic data signals and the artifacts accompanying them while covering the principles and algorithms needed for processing seismic signals in both deterministic and statistical fashion. Topics include, but are not limited to, basic seismic theory, acquisition of seismic data, analysis of seismic signals and noise, deterministic filtering of seismic data, and statistical processing of seismic data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes an initial study of using tablet PCs and interactive course software in integrated circuit (IC) design courses. A rapidly growing community is demonstrating how this technology can improve learning and retention of material by facilitating interaction between faculty and students via cognitive exercises during lectures. While numerous examples of using this technology exist, there is not much literature regarding its application to electrical engineering and IC design in particular. This paper presents examples from three different IC design courses to describe the types of cognitive activities that can be facilitated with this technology. While these examples are specific to IC design, the basic techniques are valid for any application. This study does show some initial success, which, it is hoped, will spark interest at other universities and lead to a better examination of its effectiveness through larger sample sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a one-credit laboratory course for freshmen majoring in electrical and computer engineering (ECE). The course is motivational in nature and exposes the students to a wide range of areas of electrical and computer engineering. The authors believe it is important to give freshmen a broad perspective of what ECE is all about, and to shine some light on topics they will see later in the curriculum. Yet with limited total credit hours in the curriculum, the ECE Department did not want to commit a significant number of hours, nor did the Department want to take significant study time away from the students' core freshman courses, such as calculus and physics. The resulting single-credit-hour course meets only one day a week for two hours, with a format that combines both lecture and experimentation. The course is divided into a series of one- to three-week modules, each covering a selected topic in electrical and computer engineering. This paper describes the purpose, format, and content of the course. A survey of the students regarding the course is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spain is currently implementing the regulatory modifications promulgated by the Declaration of Bologna, which should result in the updating of the structure of university degrees, and the inclusion of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) methodology. In some Spanish universities, the experimental adoption of this methodology has been encouraged, with the aim of gaining experience which could be extrapolated to other qualifications and subjects when this system becomes compulsory, which is expected to be in 2008. This paper examines the teaching methodologies that follow the experimental introduction of the ECTS in the Technical Software Engineering degree course taught at the Higher Technical College of the University of Cordoba, Spain. Based on data gathered in three specific subjects during the first and third years, this paper defines the teaching strategies implemented in order to increase the active role of students during their learning. The utility of e-learning tools in this type of teaching is discussed and the academic results are compared with results obtained in previous years using more traditional teaching methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adjustable speed motor drive design requires knowledge of various electrical and mechanical fundamentals. The theories of these fundamental topics are very well addressed in different courses during the undergraduate level of a typical electrical engineering education. Furthermore, related laboratory courses help students to improve their practical skills to some extent. Since they find experimental equipment ready to use, product development skills with group work cannot be improved in laboratories. Also, these separate courses and their associated laboratories regarding fundamentals, such as power electronics, electric machines, electric circuits, electronics, dynamics, and thermal analysis, are independent courses, and students usually cannot find a chance to apply all these fundamentals to a single problem before starting their professional career. This paper summarizes a project-oriented adjustable speed drive design course suitable for senior electrical engineering undergraduate students. The project was divided into several subsystems, and each subsystem was assigned to a group of students among 28 enrolled students. The paper gives enough details for each subsystem to develop an induction motor drive system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Closed laboratories are becoming an increasingly popular approach to teaching introductory computer science courses. Unlike open laboratories that tend to be an informal environment provided for students to practice their skills with attendance optional, closed laboratories are structured meeting times that support the lecture component of the course, and attendance is required. This paper reports on an integrated approach to designing, implementing, and assessing laboratories with an embedded instructional research design. The activities reported here are parts of a departmentwide effort not only to improve student learning in computer science and computer engineering (CE) but also to improve the agility of the Computer Science and Engineering Department in adapting the curriculum to changing technologies, incorporate research, and validate the instructional strategies used. This paper presents the design and implementation of the laboratories and the results and analysis of student performance. Also described in this paper is cooperative learning in the laboratories and its impact on student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the development, implementation, and assessment of a project-based Bioinstrumentation course. All course lectures and hands-on laboratory activities are related to a central project theme: a cardiac pacemaker. The students create a benchtop cardiac pacemaker by applying instrumentation knowledge acquired in the course to each stage of device development. This approach emphasizes both conceptual and practical student learning: The students must apply theory learned in the course to create their devices. Indirect and direct assessment performed with respect to the major course objective demonstrated that course participants were able to successfully design, construct, and test a bioinstrumentation system. The students perceived a marked increase in their instrumentation knowledge, objectively corroborated by their performance on specific exercises related to the creation of their benchtop pacemakers. The outcomes of the course development presented here, along with the course structure and pedagogical methodology, may enhance engineering education by acting as a guideline for the creation of courses in which a central project theme is used as a platform for concept instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite a widely-acknowledged shortage of software developers, and reports of a gap between industry needs and software education, the possible gap between students' needs and software development education has not been explored in detail. In their university education, students want to take courses and carry out projects that clearly relate to their lives and their goals. This paper reports on a quantitative study of 297 software development students. The analysis of the results suggests that software development education has a predominantly social relevance to students and also has moderate personal and professional relevance. The following approaches are recommended to improve students' views of the relevance of software development education: use various learning environments; pay special attention to female students, students who did not have IT as a school subject, and students who rate their own academic performance as low; update educators on the latest developments; design programs to appeal to students and to meet societal demands. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Contribution: A systematic approach to MATLAB problem design and automated assessment is described, based on the experience working with the MATLAB server provided by MathWorks and integrated with the edX massive online open class (MOOC) platform. Background: New technologies, such as MOOCs, provide innovative methods to tackle new challenges in teaching and learning. However, they also bring challenges in course delivery and assessment, due to factors such as less direct student–instructor interaction. These challenges are especially severe in engineering education, which relies heavily on experiential learning, such as laboratory exercises and computer simulations, to assist students in understanding concepts. As a result, effective design of experiential learning components is extremely critical for engineering MOOCs. Intended Outcomes: This paper shares the experience gained through developing and offering an MOOC on communication systems, with special focus on the development and the automated assessment of MATLAB exercises for active concept learning. Application Design: The proposed approach introduced students to concepts by using learning components commonly provided by many MOOC platforms (e.g., online lectures and quizzes), and augmented the student experience with MATLAB-based computer simulations and exercises to enable more concrete and detailed understanding of the material. Findings: The effectiveness of the instructional methods was supported by evaluation of students’ learning performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many university-level electrical engineering courses continue to use textbooks as curriculum scaffolds, prescribed texts, and/or reference volumes. Textbook reliance is even more pronounced in courses that teach foundational principles of the discipline, such as introductory circuit theory. This paper reports on the conceptual coverage of introductory electric circuit theory as presented in textbooks. More specifically, a comparative study of six texts was performed using an analytic framework based on prior research on conceptual understanding and organized around multiple criteria. The ideas of conceptual framework and conceptual links are used to identify potential conceptual gaps in each textbook. This analysis reveals that the majority of the books are missing many important conceptual features. Findings from this study can be beneficial for authors as they develop new editions of books, and for instructors as they evaluate and select texts for use in their courses. This study can also inform ongoing efforts to both develop more effective instructional materials and investigate how textbooks affect conceptual understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys how the computer input/output (I/O) subsystem is taught in introductory undergraduate courses. It is important to study the educational process of the computer I/O subsystem because, in the curricula recommendations, it is considered a core topic in the area of knowledge of computer architecture and organization (CAO). It is also a basic knowledge to be acquired in order to work in areas such as human–computer interaction (HCI) or embedded systems. Examination questions, course syllabi, and textbooks were analyzed to identify which teaching approaches are being used. Individuals teaching the I/O subsystem could choose between the options explained here, according to their intended learning outcomes. In addition, a literature survey was conducted on the development and use of tools to improve student understanding of I/O and to make the topic less abstract and more attractive. A goal is to indicate to computing education researchers that the majority of the literature reports experiences in developing or using different resources or educational methodologies, but that these are not based on a theory of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hardware-based courses in computer science studies require much effort from both students and teachers. The most important part of students' learning is attending in person and actively working on laboratory exercises on hardware equipment. This paper deals with a specific group of students, those who are marginalized by not being able to regularly attend lessons and perform the laboratory exercises. This group of “busy students” includes older students, and those who travel, are employed or are parents. In particular it describes how such students achieved impressive results in a hardware-based course by using Open Educational Resources (OER). These facilitated students' learning process and gave busy students the opportunity to organize their learning time so as to work on the hardware courses remotely from home when they had time and opportunity. The results of the evaluation show significant improvements, both in grade distribution and course throughput, after implementing the new Open Educational Resources approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exponential growth of advancing technologies is pushing curriculum designers in computer engineering (CpE) education to compress more and more content into the typical 4-year program, without necessarily paying much attention to the cohesiveness of those contents. The result has been highly fragmented curricula consisting of various disconnected theory courses and laboratory practicals. A holistic approach to curricula development that focuses on integrated fundamental knowledge is required to remedy this. This paper proposes a holistic approach to developing a CpE curriculum and to maintaining continuous, coherent development of that curriculum. The elements of the proposed approach are the following: formulation of objectives, identification of major curriculum areas, construction of a system model for CpE core courses by using the Y-chart methodology, description of electives, integration of laboratory practices, and assessment of the curriculum. An assessment of the curriculum is presented based on survey data and accreditation outcomes. Assessment results show that holistic understanding and integrated design experience assist students in achieving the program objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lack of student motivation is a problem in many courses in electrical engineering. Introducing competition between students can enhance their motivation, but it can also generate negative emotions. This paper presents an empirical study of students in a telecommunications engineering degree; it measured their level of motivation, and their emotions about competition in education in general, and in particular about the Information System for Competition based on pRoblem solving in Education (ISCARE). ISCARE makes adaptive matches, pairing students who share a similar knowledge level. The study results show that students had moderate levels of motivation and experienced no negative emotions while using ISCARE. Under certain circumstances, therefore, competition in education, using technology systems that provide competition, can produce motivation without generating negative emotions. Female students and students with low ISCARE scores were less motivated and experienced more negative emotions. In addition, motivation and emotions toward ISCARE were more positive than they had been toward competition in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As technology is increasingly being seen as a facilitator to learning, open remote laboratories are increasingly available and in widespread use around the world. They provide some advantages over traditional hands-on labs or simulations. This paper presents the results of integrating the open remote laboratory VISIR into several courses, in various contexts and using various methodologies. These integrations, all related to higher education engineering, were designed by teachers with different perspectives to achieve a range of learning outcomes. The degree to which these VISIR-related outcomes were accomplished is discussed. The results reflect the levels of student engagement and learning and of teacher involvement. From the analysis, a connection between these two aspects was traced, although only related to the user profiles. VISIR is shown to be always of benefit for more motivated students, but this benefit can be maximized under particular conditions and characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a printed circuit board (PCB) design course based on electromechanical workflow. The course relies on the premise that a PCB is an integral component of any electronic apparatus, along with its other electromechanical and mechanical components. To emphasize this to students, electrical and mechanical computer-aided design tools are used in synergy. The course content is described in detail, and the design workflow is illustrated, using a project to design a data acquisition instrument as an example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental experience has a significant effect on students' engineering education and improves their practical skills. However, experiments are high-cost, requiring laboratory space, experimental sets, and so on. Computer-assisted learning (CAL) can provide a similar educational effect. Web-based interfaces, a type of CAL often used in distance education, are therefore economical solutions in that they require neither laboratories nor experimental equipment. In particular, they facilitate students' understanding of the practical applications of their engineering education. This paper proposes the Web-based simulation of analog modulation techniques using MATLAB. To this end, a Web-based educational interface, called AnalogWeb, was designed and implemented as part of an analog communication course. AnalogWeb was developed using MATLAB Builder for NE with WebFigures and ASP.NET platform; it can be easily accessed by users/students using only a Web browser and requires no installation of MATLAB or any special program on the server or the clients. AnalogWeb is a user-friendly educational interface providing advanced visualization tools such as zoom, moving graphics, and three-dimensional imaging. AnalogWeb was validated, and its educational contributions tested, with 60 undergraduate students at Sakarya University, Turkey; the results are presented here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an organic electronics laboratory course on an Electrical Engineering Master's program. The course is composed of five laboratory exercises, with supporting lectures. Each exercise takes from one to four lab sessions to complete and targets some important aspect of organic electronics: organic electronic materials and substrates, preparation of the materials for fabrication, novel flexible devices, inkjet fabrication technology, and organic electronic devices as an alternative to conventional electronic ones. Together, they give students a comprehensive insight into the field of organic electronics as well as its possibilities and applications. The students' academic results were excellent, and an anonymous end-of term questionnaire revealed that they were very satisfied with this lab-based course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurship is a novel course in the curriculum for students in the Information Technology (IT) degree program at La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia. In comparison to other IT-related courses, the Entrepreneurship course seeks to develop business management knowledge and skills; its learning design is thus different to that of other courses in the IT program. The concept of constructive alignment for curriculum renewal suggests that there are several components of good course design. In this paper, we use the principles of constructive alignment to analyze and redesign several components of the Entrepreneurship course. The focus is on reviewing and aligning the assessment tasks to ensure an effective evaluation and the achievement of student learning outcomes. Since assessment drives student learning, we describe the innovative assessment tasks that were implemented to enhance student learning, provide the rationale for the design of these tasks as supported by the current literature, and reflect on possible future improvements. The course redesign process and the constructive alignment and innovative assessment can be applied to other courses in the field, and more broadly to curriculum, teaching, and learning in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project-based learning is one of the main successful student-centered pedagogies broadly used in computing science courses. However, this approach can be insufficient when dealing with practical subjects that implicitly require many deliverables and a great deal of feedback and organizational resources. In this paper, a worked e-portfolio is presented as an approach to improve the teaching/learning and evaluation processes in project-based learning environments needing considerable resources. To validate this approach, a practical project-based software engineering course supported by a Moodle-based e-portfolio was designed and taught. The results obtained corroborated the effectiveness of the e-portfolio in practical software engineering teaching; this approach can be extended to similar subjects in other studies and/or curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a case study of an innovative approach to teaching at an engineering school. The postgraduate course Project Work and Communication in Research and Development (R&D) was developed at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia. The main aim of the course was to make the entry of young engineering graduates into the business environment as easy as possible. Currently, engineers are facing more and more interdisciplinarity and project work in their daily assignments. The course was designed to remedy any deficiencies in the multidisciplinary professional skills and knowledge of the graduate-level students, and it covered the topics of innovation management, communication in R&D, project management, and problem solving in teams. An end-of-course survey showed positive feedback from participating students. The empirical data (enrollment ratio of students, session attendance ratio, and average student grade) proves that the course met its goal of honing the professional skills of postgraduate engineering students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, an undergraduate capstone course in software engineering is described that not only exposes students to agile software development, but also makes it possible to observe the behavior of developers using Scrum for the first time. The course requires students to work as Scrum Teams, responsible for the implementation of a set of user stories defined by a project domain expert playing the role of the Product Owner. During the course, data on project management activities are collected in order to analyze the amount of work completed, compliance with the release and iteration plans, productivity, ability in effort estimation, and the like. The paper discusses the achievement of teaching goals and provides empirical evaluation of students' progress in estimation and planning skills. A summary of lessons learned and recommendations is given, reflecting the issues to be considered when teaching courses in agile software development. Surveys of students have shown that they were overwhelmingly positive about the course, indicating that the course fully met or even exceeded their expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the evolution of the teaching of electrical engineering to mechanical engineering students based on motivation and a pedagogical strategy incorporating interdisciplinary mechatronics projects in a learning studio environment. Implementation of student projects within the curriculum has been demonstrated to be highly motivational and educational and has even evolved from “play and learn” into industry-inspired green energy applications as a platform for multiple student competitions. Several examples of successful student projects are discussed. These modules can be used as motivation instruments to gradually enhance the interest of current and future engineering students in mechatronics. In this paper, a summary of student feedback is provided, and benefits, challenges, and lessons learned from this initiative are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrical engineering (EE) is one of the largest engineering disciplines. Computer engineering (CpE) has a similar curriculum, but different demographics and student outcomes. Using a dataset from universities in the U.S. that includes over 70\,000 students who majored in engineering, this paper describes the outcomes for students matriculating in and migrating into EE and CpE so as to inform the decision making of faculty, department heads, and deans. Although men consistently outnumber women in EE and CpE, the rates of matriculation and six-year graduation vary by race and gender. EE is the most popular choice for Asian and Black students (males and females) at matriculation, but while Asians graduate at high rates, Blacks (particularly males) are not retained. Retention is higher in EE than in CpE despite the similarity of the curricula. Graduation rates are lower than expected for women of all races in CpE and for Hispanic women in EE. By the third semester, some students of all races and genders have left their matriculation major, but others have migrated in from other majors, compensating for some of this loss. CpE students are more likely than EE students to switch to another major. Trajectories of EE and CpE students are racialized and distinct. CpE loses more students and attracts fewer students than EE. These findings illustrate the importance of disaggregating by engineering major as well as race and gender to improve recruitment and retention overall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an educational methodology based on collaborative and competitive learning is proposed. The suggested approach has been successfully applied to an undergraduate communication networks course, which is part of the core curriculum of the three-year degree in telecommunications engineering at the University of Valladolid in Spain. This methodology is supported by two tools: the Moodle wiki for the collaborative part and a competitive learning tool called QUESTOURnament, which has been created by the authors to encourage the development of students' inquiry, documentation, and critical analysis skills while raising the level of involvement and communication between students and teachers. This paper describes how the collaborative and competitive approaches were combined and how the activities were ordered in phases. This educational proposal has been validated with academic outcomes and students' feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an advanced variant of learning programming by the use of the Internet and multimedia. It describes the development of a blended learning environment, which, in addition to classroom (face-to-face) lessons, introduces lessons delivered over the Internet: the use of multimedia teaching material with completely dynamic interactive simulations; the use of applications for regular checking and self-checking of the acquisition of knowledge; and applications for regular communication on the teaching material between students and lecturers. This blended learning environment has been developed with the purpose of upgrading the basic programming courses (Programming Fundamentals 1 and Programming Fundamentals 2) at the Advanced School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (VISER) in Belgrade, Serbia. The paper contains a brief description of the goals set, their development and implementation (structure design, the development of teaching materials, scenario implementation, and evaluation), and the results of the implementation and evaluation of these courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoelectronics is an emerging area of electrical and computer engineering that deals with the current–voltage behavior of atomic-scale electronic devices. As the trend toward ever smaller devices continues, there is a need to update traditional undergraduate curricula to introduce electrical engineers to the fundamentals of the field. These fundamentals encompass topics from quantum mechanics and condensed-matter physics, and they pose new teaching challenges in electronics education; specifically, unconventional ideas must be presented in a rapid and yet complete way so that engineering undergraduates can quickly yet satisfyingly absorb the key concepts, and then apply these concepts to emerging devices. This paper describes the strategies employed by the author in teaching the subject to large undergraduate classes at his institution. These strategies include the use of computer visualization, a careful introduction of quantum mechanics, and a constant demonstration of the relevance of theory by practical examples and calculations. The effectiveness of the approach is illustrated through survey results of the Universal Student Ratings of Instruction at the author's institution and by way of typical assignment and exam questions that demonstrate the level of sophistication that students can attain in what might otherwise be viewed as a purely mathematical and esoteric subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An open-source management system of Web-based teaching interventions is presented that can be used in general for science curriculum courses and especially for computer science courses. The proposed solution is called System of Teaching Intelligent Interventions (STII) and facilitates the authoring, deployment, and evaluation of Web-based metaphors. This paper discusses the use of metaphors for assisting students to comprehend the substance of cognitive concepts and their basic background. STII has been applied in a particular educational scenario during the learning process of 228 students attending the course "computer applications." The presentation of results from a pilot evaluation of two metaphors demonstrates the usefulness of the system. The evaluation focuses on the impact of the two metaphors on student learning, and on detecting potential correlations between metaphors and students' groups. STII evaluation conclusions strongly support that multimedia metaphors can be used as an alternative instructional tool to assist students in confronting their cognitive constraints and developing functional understanding of curriculum courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on recent initiatives aimed at significantly enhancing the teaching of engineering design at the Westcoast University of Applied Sciences. A good design experience offers opportunities for learning to synthesize, solve, and utilize a given problem. Design problems should be open-ended, moderately difficult, and common to all groups. The outcome of creating a multicourse design project, with the intention of attending an international design contest (Crazy Car Race), is described. Students with different design experience have to work together to build a racing car which navigates a given route autonomously. The course structure, its placement in the regular curriculum, and the student and instructor's evaluation results are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the pedagogical and technical challenges the authors faced in developing a distributed laboratory for the execution of virtual scientific experiments (VSEs) superimposed on a Grid infrastructure, for a course on sensor networks that is part of the Master's in Information Networking (MSIN) program jointly offered by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), USA and Athens Information Technology (AIT), Athens, Greece. The MSIN program utilizes virtual classroom technologies because of its strong distance learning component. Courses taught by CMU faculty are attended in real-time by students in Athens, Greece, via video-wall teleconferencing sessions. Vice versa, visiting CMU faculty to AIT teach classes that are attended by students at CMU. Students in both institutions enjoy full interactivity with their classmates on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. A distributed shared virtual laboratory is needed for many of the more empirical courses. This paper describes the challenges and issues the authors faced in developing such a lab. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Operating systems is a fundamental topic underlying many modern disciplines, including computing, telematics, and control engineering. Moreover, operating systems is one of the core courses considered under the most important curricula recommendations. The learning process in this area involves both a theoretical and a practical part that students have to learn and put into practice. To reinforce operating systems fundamentals, simulation tools and instructional operating systems have been proposed. However, few of these tools address a learning approach that permits one to work with real operating systems while supporting an active learning methodology that integrates theory and practice. This paper applies generative learning methods and Web-based applications to operating systems courses. WebgeneOS is presented as an experimental learning system that leads students through a more active participation in the learning process. WebgeneOS combines the universal connectivity of Web technologies with the educational theory provided by the generative learning methods. The system allows students to send their system programs using Web forms, execute them in a native operating system, and receive their results and feedback information through Web browsers. The benefits of WebgeneOS were evaluated by comparing students' grades. The evaluation involved students attending operating systems courses during the 2002–2003, 2003–2004, and 2004–2005 academic years. Students using WebgeneOS improved their grades by about 13%. Moreover, the system offered a well-balanced formation between the theoretical and the practical learning outcomes. Overall, this paper made evident that Web technologies and generative learning methods help students in their learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivating students to learn computer networking concepts is often difficult because many students find the subject rather technical, dry, and boring. To overcome this problem, the author has prepared some practical laboratory exercises (practicals) and other materials. They are designed around a network operating system and a multiuser, multitasking operating system and are suitable for classroom use in undergraduate computer networking courses. The effectiveness of these practicals has been evaluated both formally by students and informally in discussion within the teaching team. The implementation of the practicals was judged to be successful because of the positive student feedback and also because students scored better in the final exam. This paper describes the practicals, their overall effectiveness, and plans for further projects. The impact of practicals on student learning and comprehension is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A curriculum for a master's level course called Integrating Information Systems Technologies is presented. The course content is drawn from industry practice, and teaches ways of integrating large scale information systems. The teaching method used is similar to the method used to teach architecture. Students are asked to design complex systems in the form of posters; in each class these posters are discussed. Course evaluations from 95 students suggest that students find posters more effective than written papers and slide presentations. Specifically, students find that posters not only encourage visualization, but also provide them a way of seeing the thought processes of fellow students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An effective course in switch-mode power supplies (SMPs) should ideally contain an element of hands-on design and experimental work in addition to the study of the theory and simulations. This element should complement the study of the theory of SMPs and simulation of their operation. However, this approach is extremely time consuming and expensive and can only be offered to a very few number of students. This paper details a course structure that is a compromise between a time-intensive and expensive practical approach and a purely theoretical simulation-based course. The proposed course structure reduces the costs and the staffing/space commitments while still maintaining a very strong emphasis on practical design and experimental work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrical Engineering (EE) and Computer Engineering (CpE) programs have similar curricula, but different demographics and student outcomes. This paper extends earlier longitudinal studies to a larger and more diverse dataset with 90\,000 first-time-in-college and 26\,000 transfer students who majored in engineering at USA institutions, including students who started in first-year engineering programs, those switching majors, and those transferring from other institutions. Black men and women and Asian men in engineering are strongly attracted to EE when they start in college. Black students and Asian and Hispanic men are attracted to CpE more than other engineering disciplines, but at lower rates than EE. Asian students have the highest graduation rates in EE. EE students are much more likely to graduate than CpE students. Compared to other engineering disciplines, CpE graduation rates are low for women of all races/ethnicities and Black men. Both EE and CpE lose many of those starting the programs, but switchers and transfers compensate for some of the loss. Considering Asian students and White men, switching to EE accounts for the high attrition rate from CpE, but attrition in other populations cannot be explained so easily. Trajectories of student enrollment differ by race/ethnicity. The approach used here could serve as a model for other fields studying their own demographic distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The value of a studio course in undergraduate soft- ware engineering programs is well documented. What is not as well understood is how to provide a relevant studio experience to working, seasoned professional software engineers as part of a Master's of Software Engineering (MSE) degree program. The challenge is that students' experiential diversity complicates the selection of projects that address different students' needs. Further, when the studio experience is compressed into 14 weeks, significant challenges are presented in controlling the process environment while providing a realistic and meaningful learning experience for part-time students. In this paper, a novel software studio course developed specifically for working, experienced professionals in an MSE program is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]