Abstract
In this paper, we present our experience with redesigning an introductory computer science course for (electrical) engineers with blended learning concepts. It is a large mandatory course with eight credit points over the course of two semesters, where first year electrical engineers learn how to program with Arduino, C and Python. Additionally, they need to cover basic computer science concepts such as binary numbers, Boolean algebra, encodings, finite state machines and object-oriented programming. We designed the course to cover the fields that are most relevant to our students’ future careers. With the new format, students declare they are much more engaged with the course, they drop the course less often and they actually achieve better exam results. We completely re-structured the course, introduced inverted classroom elements and hackathons and we continuously optimized and adapted the course. The main focus is on hands-on-experience and teamwork, which we mostly achieve by the use of hackathons. In this paper, we described the contents and teaching concepts of the course and we discussed the achieved results.
Highlights
In Germany, traditional teaching with lectures and tutorials has been the predominant method for centuries
This paper has presented our experience with designing, building, and running a large two-semester long course with blended learning
One of the main challenges we faced was applying inverted classroom teaching without the risk of students not following the content at all, which is a typical experience with pure inverted classroom approaches
Summary
In Germany, traditional teaching with lectures and tutorials has been the predominant method for centuries. Inverted classroom flips the learning process: students first independently acquire knowledge and discuss and practice this knowledge with the class instructor. This approach has already been applied before the online learning era, i.e., by giving mandatory reading assignments before class. Hackathon: Reaction game Build and program a game with two buttons and two LEDs. The LEDs randomly light up and the user needs to press the corresponding LED asap. Hackathon: Synthesizer Build and program a synthesizer with several buttons for different tones. Hackathon: Game of Coda or Mastermind Program a basic version of one of these games which require a user to guess a randomly pre-selected sequence of numbers. This section discusses some related works and background information necessary to fully understand our course’s design and decisions
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