Abstract
This paper reports an experience of an abrupt shift from traditional teaching to distance learning within a course on digital system design using programmable logic platforms. The course organization and evaluation model had to be modified on the fly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The adopted teaching and assessment methodology puts a strong focus on the laboratory component, assigning a very significant weight to project-based evaluation. As the access to laboratory equipment was cut, all the previously accumulated experience had to be modified and adapted to new circumstances. The paper discusses teaching methods employed within the course and analyzes in detail a project-based evaluation accentuated on modeling of a simplified processor. The advantages and drawbacks of the reported teaching methods are appointed. Possible design extensions are also suggested, which permit assigning the same core project to different students. We believe that the proposed project is a valuable instructional tool, in particular, for remote learning/assessment.
Highlights
Digital design is a fundamental course in typical computing curricula
In this paper, we describe a project-based learning experience applied within a course on digital design using high-capacity programmable devices
We consider that the proposed processor-modelling project is very suitable to test the expected learning outcomes of the Digital Design Laboratory (DDL) course because of the following reasons:
Summary
Digital design is a fundamental course in typical computing curricula. The experience acquired in the analysis and design of digital systems can be applied in a very large number of potential domains and is essential for more advanced courses such as computer architecture, digital electronics, and embedded systems. The second discipline, Digital Design Laboratory (DDL), logically continues the previous course and is taught in the second semester of the first year of CE curriculum The aim of this course is to further develop knowledge acquired within IDS with focus on design automation and programmable logic devices and to cover the following topics:. The competences acquired in this course allow future engineers to design (from specification to prototype and test) any digital system, based on hardware description languages, schematic capture tools, high capacity programmable logic devices (FPGAs), and respective design tools. The third discipline, Reconfigurable Computing (RC), is taught in the second semester of the fourth year of CE curriculum This is an advanced course covering programmable systems-on-chip (such as Zynq-7000 of Xilinx [6]), software/hardware co-design, software techniques for embedded applications, and advanced interfaces.
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