Using Technology To Enhance And Expand The Learning Environment In A Lower Division Computer Engineering Course

During the summer of 2001 the lower division computer engineering course at Iowa State University (ISU), Introduction to Digital Design, was restructured to leverage instructional technology, incorporate multimedia, and reach a geographically diverse group of learners. A faculty member from Computer Engineering partnered with Engineering Distance Education to take this unique opportunity to explore how we could teach this course more effectively. Innovative use of technology and media impacted not only what we were able to do in the lecture, but also the laboratories that are part of part of the course. The lectures were captured digitally and made available using streaming video. This gives students flexibility in viewing lectures multiple times as they learn. Before this, students only had the option of viewing the content in a synchronous mode. One of the other powerful advantages of using technology was the ability to bring examples from the real world into the classroom. For example, in discussing finite state machines the instructor did a remote session in front of a vending machine, which illustrated the concepts using something students interact with often. In reconsidering the laboratory experience, the focus was on addressing the issues related to providing hands-on experiences to distance students. Addressing these issues for off-campus learners also had positive implications for the large on-campus student body in computer engineering. An example of a change to the course lab, which will discussed later. The lecture and laboratory instruction as well as the communication between faculty and students for this course was done exclusively using a web-enhanced environment including streaming video and WebCT. Use of the Web enabled ISU to offer this course to a wider audience as far away as Puerto Rico. Before, due to technology restrictions, this undergraduate course was only available to a limited number of sites within the state of Iowa. ISU has a successful BSEE program available to off-campus students and is now carefully examining the feasibility of expanding this program beyond the state. These efforts have helped us identify the issues related to doing so. After the positive experience of reformatting Introduction to Digital Design, we were asked to develop a version of the course for in-service 8-12 teachers as part of a NSF grant awarded to ISU. This opportunity raises some other interesting challenges in dealing with a wider range of P ge 7.278.1 “Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright ” 2002, American Society for Engineering Education” technologies and learners with different backgrounds and needs. There is no doubt that as we continue to think through and develop this course, there will be feedback to the Introduction to Digital Design course as well as the possibility of a large secondary audience of junior and senior high school students and teachers.