A large integrated online hardware design course

Belinda B. Wang

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Conference: 2021 ASEE St. Lawrence Section Conference
Location: Virtual
Publication Date: April 17, 2021
Start Date: April 17, 2021
End Date: April 17, 2021
Page Count: 5
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--38289
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/38289
Download Count: 174

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biography

Belinda B. Wang P. Eng. University of Toronto

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Belinda B. Wang received the B. A. Sc. degree (with honors) in 1986 and subsequently the M. Eng. degree in 1990 in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto. She joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Toronto as a Tutor in 1986 teaching/coordinating tutorials and laboratories. She also held the position of Manager, PC network from 1988 to 1991 managing the departmental undergraduate computer networks. She was promoted to Senior Tutor in 1992 and then to the rank of Senior Lecturer in 1999. Since then she has been primarily teaching first and second year undergraduate courses such as digital systems, introductory electronics, electric and magnetic fields, circuit analysis, electrical fundamentals, computer fundamentals and calculus. She also serves as the P. Eng. Czar in the ECE Department since 2007 engaged in the promotion of the Professional Engineer designation amongst faculty members. She was promoted to Associate Professor, Teaching Stream in July 2015. Professor Wang, in collaboration with University of Waterloo has produced a set of new online learning modules that support the teaching of foundational level electromagnetics and circuits in engineering programs. She is actively engaged in activities involving teaching pedagogy, technology and innovation.

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Abstract

A large integrated online hardware design course Abstract We know teachers engage with primary school students in close proximity and lead class from the front of the room in secondary school. Despite the distance between a professor and students having increased ten-fold in large lecture halls at post-secondary institutions, most students still receive instantaneous feedback from educators, and there is a tangible physical presence of others felt in the room. The COVID-19 pandemic has destroyed the traditional educational model that we have known since 1635 – the creation of the first public school in America. The physical distancing requirement has erected an immeasurable barrier between educators and students overnight. Educators had to drastically change their teaching strategy to adapt to a virtual environment. In this paper, we share our personal experience in developing an online course at one of Canada’s most prestigious post-secondary institutions, and our perspective in future online education. The first step in building an online course is determining the mode of delivery, synchronous or asynchronous lectures. We chose the asynchronous model for our 2nd year Digital Systems course. The driving factor was the geographic spread of our cohort across multiple time zones. Asynchronous teaching allows all students equal access to course materials at their own schedule and pace. Instead of pre-recording 39 one-hour long lectures, we opted for a different approach. We produced 140 short videos, each covering a single concept. Our main concerns were the attention span of online learners, the effectiveness of our lectures, and the clarity of the presentation. For a hardware design course, a crucial hurdle to cross is to instill the experiences of hands-on practice into an online platform. For example, the labs of the original course required field programmable-gated array chips on physical boards. In order to preserve the opportunity for students to learn hardware design by seeing lights, digital displays and controls in a physical laboratory, we built a virtual GUI interface. Teaching assistants conducted video conferencing sessions with students to enhance the practical experience. We ran an interactive discussion board to facilitate learning and video chat office hours to increase the human interaction. After overcoming the major obstacle of online content delivery, we had to deal with one of the most contentious issues for online courses - assessment. Many institutions have adopted proctoring software such as Examity and ProctorU; however, our faculty has rejected proctoring software because of heightened student stress and equity issues. We developed a two-stage assessment process comprised of a timed written test, followed by a short video interview. We believe that the interview served as a strong deterrent for cheating. Out of 340 students, we flagged six as potential cases of academic misconduct, and ultimately achieved a grade distribution similar to previous years. The pandemic has brought new challenges to traditional educational systems. We answered that challenge by offering this online course to a class of 340 students successfully. Our unique integrated approach that combined asynchronous content delivery with synchronous practical experience created a more effective learning environment for students compared to other online courses from Coursera or MIT MOOC. Students voted our course as one of the best courses in the fall semester. Our experience has taught us that early and thorough planning, efficient and continuous technical support, and time investment are essential for building effective online courses. There is a strong shift towards online education at universities and colleges for reasons of accessibility, as well as economies of scale. The lessons learned through this experience will help guide us in the future.

Citation
Format

Wang, B. B. (2021, April), A large integrated online hardware design course Paper presented at 2021 ASEE St. Lawrence Section Conference, Virtual. 10.18260/1-2--38289

TY - CPAPER
AB - A large integrated online hardware design course
Abstract
We know teachers engage with primary school students in close proximity and lead class from the front of the room in secondary school. Despite the distance between a professor and students having increased ten-fold in large lecture halls at post-secondary institutions, most students still receive instantaneous feedback from educators, and there is a tangible physical presence of others felt in the room. The COVID-19 pandemic has destroyed the traditional educational model that we have known since 1635 – the creation of the first public school in America. The physical distancing requirement has erected an immeasurable barrier between educators and students overnight. Educators had to drastically change their teaching strategy to adapt to a virtual environment. In this paper, we share our personal experience in developing an online course at one of Canada’s most prestigious post-secondary institutions, and our perspective in future online education.
The first step in building an online course is determining the mode of delivery, synchronous or asynchronous lectures. We chose the asynchronous model for our 2nd year Digital Systems course. The driving factor was the geographic spread of our cohort across multiple time zones. Asynchronous teaching allows all students equal access to course materials at their own schedule and pace. Instead of pre-recording 39 one-hour long lectures, we opted for a different approach. We produced 140 short videos, each covering a single concept. Our main concerns were the attention span of online learners, the effectiveness of our lectures, and the clarity of the presentation. For a hardware design course, a crucial hurdle to cross is to instill the experiences of hands-on practice into an online platform. For example, the labs of the original course required field programmable-gated array chips on physical boards. In order to preserve the opportunity for students to learn hardware design by seeing lights, digital displays and controls in a physical laboratory, we built a virtual GUI interface. Teaching assistants conducted video conferencing sessions with students to enhance the practical experience. We ran an interactive discussion board to facilitate learning and video chat office hours to increase the human interaction. After overcoming the major obstacle of online content delivery, we had to deal with one of the most contentious issues for online courses - assessment. Many institutions have adopted proctoring software such as Examity and ProctorU; however, our faculty has rejected proctoring software because of heightened student stress and equity issues. We developed a two-stage assessment process comprised of a timed written test, followed by a short video interview. We believe that the interview served as a strong deterrent for cheating. Out of 340 students, we flagged six as potential cases of academic misconduct, and ultimately achieved a grade distribution similar to previous years.
The pandemic has brought new challenges to traditional educational systems. We answered that challenge by offering this online course to a class of 340 students successfully. Our unique integrated approach that combined asynchronous content delivery with synchronous practical experience created a more effective learning environment for students compared to other online courses from Coursera or MIT MOOC. Students voted our course as one of the best courses in the fall semester. Our experience has taught us that early and thorough planning, efficient and continuous technical support, and time investment are essential for building effective online courses. There is a strong shift towards online education at universities and colleges for reasons of accessibility, as well as economies of scale. The lessons learned through this experience will help guide us in the future.

AU - Belinda B. Wang P. Eng.
CY - Virtual
DA - 2021/04/17
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - A large integrated online hardware design course
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/38289
DO - 10.18260/1-2--38289
ER -