Design & Evaluation of a Multipurpose Course Structure for Teaching Digital Logic

This paper presents the design and evaluation of a portable course to teach introductory digital logic. The goals of this course are to simultaneously meet existing accreditation criteria while providing a course that has the potential of being administered completely online. The online characteristic of the course gives the instructor the ability to teach the class in numerous delivery modes. These include an asynchronous online delivery or as supplementary resources for a synchronous face-to-face delivery. The inclusion of a low-cost portable lab kit provides additional flexibility by supporting either the traditional 2-hour on-campus lab section or a more asynchronous lab-anywhere mode. This paper will describe the design of the course, the corresponding learning objectives, the supporting learning activities, and the learning assessment. This paper will present student performance comparisons for different delivery modes collected over the past 4 years at a medium-sized land grant university. This paper will also provide data on the impact of an adaptive learning component of the course that was implemented for the more difficult course concepts. The adaptive learning component allows the student to receive additional computer instruction on a topic that varies the level of difficulty based on automated formative assessment. The adaptive learning component of the course was shown to have a significant impact on students with GPAs between 2.5 – 3.0 on one of the outcomes without needing instructor interaction. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program, thus all resources for the course are open to the engineering education community. This paper will be of interest to any engineering educator that teaches digital logic or anyone that has interest in augmenting their current course with online resources or switching to a portable lab kit. Introduction Digital logic is a course that can be found in every ABET accredited electrical and computer engineering degree in the US. This subject introduces students to the basic building blocks of modern computer systems and prepares them for more advanced courses in embedded systems. Institutions typically offer dedicated courses in digital circuits while some include the content within their analog circuits sequence. Since digital logic is typically offered in the first or second year of the program and does not have calculus as a prerequisite, it is a course that usually has high enrollments with varied student preparedness levels. These factors contribute to increased instructor time spent on helping students that don’t have a strong algebra background. Digital logic is a subject that is more amenable to online instruction compared to other engineering courses [1]. Without complex, calculus-based derivations, the foundation of digital logic can be effectively taught using instructional videos. This characteristic opens opportunities to help struggling students without consuming excessive instructor time. Whether taught fully online, or in a face-to-face mode, the use of instructional videos provides students a learning resource that can help address background deficiencies. Additionally, the lab component of a digital logic course is becoming increasingly feasible due to the low cost of portable lab equipment and digital development boards. A lab component is critical for most engineering courses because it provides opportunities for the deepest levels of learning [2,3]. There are two barriers that must be addressed when creating a fully portable, digital logic course. The first is how to help students that get stuck in an online environment and need additional assistance with learning the material. It is desired to have an online environment that can help these students without relying on instructor inquiries. Second, the portable lab kit must be both comprehensive and low cost to be practical. A portable lab kit that is cost prohibitive to the majority of students is a barrier that limits access to the content and defeats moving to an online delivery mode.