A Web-Based Tool for Teaching WLAN Design Fundamentals to Undergraduates

Abstract

Wireless communication and networking courses are becoming increasingly popular in universities, polytechnical institutions, postsecondary colleges, and private training institutions around the globe. This popularity is partly because of rapid developments in wireless communication and networking technologies and the high demand for wireless networking skills in the industry worldwide. Unfortunately, motivating students to learn wireless local area network (WLAN) design is often difficult because students find the subject rather technical, and dry when presented. To overcome this problem, we have developed a Web-based software tool (named WLAN-Designer) that gives students an interactive learning experience in WLAN design concepts. The WLAN-Designer is suitable for classroom use in introductory wireless networking courses (undergraduate IT and CIS curricula). The effectiveness of WLAN-Designer has been evaluated by both students and teaching teams. The implementation of WLAN-Designer was judged to be successful because of the positive student feedback and also students scored better in the final examination. This chapter describes WLAN-Designer and its effectiveness as an aid to teaching and learning WLAN design concepts. The impact of WLAN-Designer on student learning and comprehension is also discussed.