Time Effective Logistics of Hybrid Image Processing Course and Laboratory

Abstract

In “pre-COVID 19” time, Braude Academic College of Engineering students enrolled in the course “Image Processing”, visited frontal lectures, and, additionally, participated in the laboratories provided in the class equipped with computers. During the laboratories, students (organized in small groups – preferably by pairs) were asked to implement several image-processing algorithms explained during frontal lectures. In the frames of this course, C, C++, and C# languages are used to write code. Specifically, to write the code, students used computers with Windows 10 and Visual Studio installed. Additionally, students were asked to prepare a PowerPoint presentation, in which they were asked to analyze the results obtained. During the in-campus laboratory, students were free to ask for help, and, in case of need, the educator provided relevant explanations. When the report was ready, students demonstrated the presentation and the working code to the educator. The grading policy was that if the presentation was good enough, and if students reasonably answered the questions, they got a high grade. As a backup, students E-Mailed a presentation and the code by using a special format developed specifically for that course. Because of COVID-19 limitations, during three semesters logistics of the lectures and laboratories were changed, and, as lectures, as laboratories were provided online by using cloud services like ZOOM and Gmail. It so happens, that semester 2021-10 – 2022-03 was started as an online semester, but after three weeks, it became a hydride semester: lectures and laboratories were provided in-campus, but students had the right to stay at home and continue to use cloud services including ZOOM and Email. This change created a number of logistics problems, and, thus, some modifications were provided in an attempt to ensure fair and non-biased grading as for the students who were physically present during the lectures and laboratories, as for the students who participated remotely. In the frames of this course, each group of students prepared a set of assignment reports and two micro-project presentations. Additionally, students physically present in the class, participated in the short nonobligatory micro-exams. This paper discusses logistics decisions and their effect on the quality of the students’ micro exams, assignments reports, and presentations. Keywords: hybrid laboratory, STEM, image processing