Developing IoT Competencies in Non-Computer Science Students in Higher Education

Abstract

This paper investigates the skills needed by Higher Education (HE) students to become successful Internet of Things (IoT) future leaders/developers. The paper focuses on the programming and Maths aspects, being fundamental to IoT development, in addition to computational thinking and coding concepts for the HE students. The research objective is to build a framework for developing IoT skills within higher education to establish the computing competencies needed for this rapidly expanding technology. The investigation included the most widely used programming language for IoT, Python, and the Maths skills at the HE level, which are essential for developing successful infrastructure, functionality, security algorithms and encryption tools for IoT. Quantitative research methodology is applied on empirical data obtained on non-Computer Science students (Non-CS) in a HE institution in UAE. There is a correlation between in university (InUni) Maths skills and Python programming course's performance. Compared to Engineering students, Business students may found it more challenging to learn Python programming language, which also applies to their Maths skills. This suggests better IoT competencies developed by Engineering students. The paper concluded that N on-CS students are able to obtain sufficient knowledge of, and skills in, using Python within one semester. The future study should consider other factors, such as general knowledge, business awareness, technology applications and legal issues.