A Combinational Digital Logic Design Tool for Practice and Assessment in Engineering Education

Rasha Morsi

doi:10.11591/edulearn.v10i3.4065

Abstract

As technology advances, computers are being used almost everywhere. In a 2013 US Census report (File and Ryan, 2014), 83.8% (up from 78.9% in 2012) of U.S. households reported owning a computer with 74.4% reporting internet use (73.4% high speed internet). In recent years, the shift in educational technologies has been moving towards gaming, more specifically serious gaming. Although this is an important trend, there is still much to be said about e-learning through a step-by-step interactive process using an online practice tool. This paper presents a detailed description of the Combinational Logic Design Tool (CLDT) (Morsi and Russell (2007). CLDT was designed and developed under the CCLI project, #0737242, funded by the National Science Foundation, which aimed to develop and disseminate a novel online practice tool for on demand review and assessment in Electrical and Computer Engineering education. The paper also reports on a formal assessment conducted in a Digital Logic Design Classroom and presents the results of this assessment.

Highlights

In 2013, “83.8% of U.S households reported owning a computer, with 78.5% of households having a desktop or laptop computer and 63.6% having a handheld computer” (File and Ryan, 2014)
There are a few online assessment tools in digital logic design that are available to aid in the learning process of students, their methods give students the option to use them as homework helpers rather than as tools to practice and advance their knowledge of these subjects
Of the seven students who logged their work with the Combinational Logic Design Tool (CLDT) practice tool, four (4) indicated that the tool was "very helpful," two indicated that sometimes the tool was "very helpful" and at other times it was "okay," and only one student indicated that the tool was "okay" only

Summary

Introduction

In 2013, “83.8% of U.S households reported owning a computer, with 78.5% of households having a desktop or laptop computer and 63.6% having a handheld computer” (File and Ryan, 2014). Different forms of technology-based education exist but to the best of the author’s knowledge, no application exists that is considered to be an online practice tool in Digital Logic Design for students in electrical and computer engineering. The students can, in theory, input a question assigned to them and are given the answer either in a tutorial-like manner or as a correction to a wrong answer being input. This takes away the students’ experience of solving the problems themselves which can result in them not knowing whether they have applied the newly learned techniques correctly

Objectives

Results

Conclusion