Electrical and Computer Engineering
Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech.
Electrical Engineering
Bucknell University
School of Engineering Education
Purdue University
Terre Haute, IN 47803, USA simoni@rose-hulman.edu
Lewisburg, PA 17837, USA aburdene@bucknell.edu
Abstract — The introductory continuous-time signals and systems (CTSS) course is widely considered one of the most difficult courses in electrical and computer engineering (ECE) curricula. This workshop will be an interactive discussion about sources of difficulty and what can be done to help improve student learning and understanding. In the first part of the workshop, discussion will be sparked and encouraged through presentation of historical data and directed questions. The goal will be to advance a continually developing understanding of the
W. Lafayette, IN 47907, USA ffayyaz@purdue.edu
There are many opinions and ideas with regards to these sources, but we would like to take a scientific approach to arrive at more definitive answers. Once more of these sources are identified, we can tailor the supplemental materials to be more effective. This work is being done in collaboration with
Dr. Ruth Streveler at the Purdue School for Engineering
Education, who specializes in the learning of difficult concepts.
We are analyzing historical data and developing new studies to problem. In the second part of the workshop, attendees will learn about hands-on activities that are being done at Bucknell and
Rose-Hulman to help address what the authors think some of the issues are. Attendees will have an opportunity to attempt one of these activities and provide feedback based on the previous discussion about learning difficulties.
Keywords—signals and systems; continuous-time; active learning; hands-on activities try to identify more of these issues. In addition to those studies we want to gather input from the community at large to try to get as broad an understanding of the problem as possible. The first part of the workshop will be an interactive discussion with the purpose of gathering such input. Discussion will be sparked by presenting data, current ideas, and directed questions. The results of this discussion will be used to guide the remainder of the workshop.
G OALS OF THE WORKSHOP
The introductory CTSS course is one of the most difficult courses that students encounter in an electrical and computer engineering (ECE) curriculum. This is evidenced at Rose-
Hulman over the last 10 years by drop/failure rates that are at least two times greater than any other course except electromagnetics. We have received NSF funding to explore why students find these courses so difficult and to determine effective methods for helping students grasp the concepts. This workshop offers engineering and science faculty an engaging opportunity to explore how to improve learning in introductory continuous-time signals and systems (CTSS) courses [1]. The two primary goals of the workshop are to provide:
• an interactive discussion that will try to provide as broad a perspective as possible to the question “Why is signals and systems difficult?” and,
• a hands-on experience with laboratories that developed and used at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and
Bucknell University over the past 4 years to improve learning in CTSS courses
C ONTENT OF THE WORKSHOP
While many people are developing supplemental materials for CTSS courses, very little exploration of the sources of difficulty from the student’s perspective has been done[2][3].
We have been trying to address issues that are related to lack of motivation and learning by creating applicationoriented hands-on active-learning opportunities for students
[4][5]. There are many examples of such opportunities described in the literature, but most of these activities make use of MATLABP ® , LabVIEWP ® , or DSP hardware [6]. The exercises described in this workshop are based on analog circuits and real-world applications of continuous-time signal processing and system modeling. There are certainly advantages to using software simulation tools for laboratory exercises because they are relatively inexpensive and students can perform many “experiments” relatively quickly. In fact, many of the exercises described in this workshop could be simulated entirely using such software tools. We are not advocating the elimination of these simulators, and in many cases use them for both prelab exercises and/or analysis of results. However, there is one key advantage to using hardware-based hands-on activities and real-world applications that simply cannot be obtained with software-only based activities. Practicing engineers use the theoretical and mathematical concepts from CTSS courses to model real-world physical phenomena. The overwhelming majority of students have never had an opportunity to connect those theoretical concepts with the physical phenomena that they are trying to model[2]. So it’s possible that a lack of motivation could be due to a lack of understanding of what use the concepts have.
While software tools can help students visualize the concepts,
This workshop is supported by NSF grant #1140995. The authors would also like to thank Ruth Streveler at Purdue Univeristy and Shannon Sexton at
Rose-Hulman for their input on data analysis and learning theory.
978-1-4673-5261-1/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

they are in-themselves also modeling tools. An important way for students to gain an experience of the phenomena that they are trying to model is to actually experiment with them[7].
Using a real system with real-world applications creates a degree of credibility and relevance that is not possible with software simulations. When students manipulate these systems, there is an understanding that they are changing something physical rather than simply adjusting a number.
In order to facilitate application-oriented hands-on activities, we have developed a number of laboratory lesson plans and an analog printed circuit board, the signals and systems exploration platform (SSEP)[8]. The SSEP can be configured easily to sum, multiply, filter, and sample continuous-time signals. With an onboard microphone,
ECG/instrumentation amplifier, and generic signal input, a wide variety of signals can be studied and manipulated.
During the workshop, several stations will be set up with portable electronic instrumentation and an SSEP.
The workshop will provide a brief introduction to the SSEP and some of the lesson plans that were developed both with and without the SSEP in mind. The attendees will then have an opportunity to run through one of the lesson plans. Finally, in order to close the loop, attendees will then be able to provide feedback relating the activities to the previous discussion about sources of difficulty in CTSS courses. own institution. They will also be invited to attend a more indepth summer workshop at Rose-Hulman during the summer of 2014 and to participate in an ongoing discussion of the issues. processing.
Q UALIFICATIONS OF THE PRESENTERS
Mario Simoni is an Associate Professor of Electrical and
Computer Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of
Technology. He has been teaching for 12 years including the introductory CTSS course and analog circuits. He developed an analog circuit platform that facilitates hands-on activities in the
CTSS course and the activities that go with it. He has been using these activities for the past three years.
Maurice Aburdene is a Professor of Electrical
Engineering at Bucknell University. He has been teaching for over 30 years, including courses on linear systems and signal
Farrah Fayyaz is a doctoral student in the School of
Engineering Education at Purdue University. She holds
Bachelors and Masters degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore,
Pakistan and taught signals and systems, digital signal processing, analog circuits and microelectronics in Pakistan for more than eight years. Her Masters research focused on identifying student difficulties in learning signal analysis. She will continue investigating students' understanding of various concepts in signals and systems for her PhD dissertation.
I NTENDED AUDIENCE AND NUMBER OF A TTENDEES
We expect this workshop to be primarily of interest to undergraduate electrical engineering faculty who are involved in signal processing education. The examples and materials presented would also be of interest to those teaching Fourier theory in other disciplines such as physics, mathematics, and other types of engineering. We would expect to have approximately 10-15 attendees.
W ORKSHOP A GENDA
I.
Introduction to the workshop (5 minutes)
II.
Discussion of the initial question: Why is CTSS such a difficult subject for students? (30 minutes)
III.
Introduction to hands-on activities being done at Rose-
Hulman and Bucknell (10 minutes)
IV.
Brief Introduction to the SSEP (5 minutes)
V.
Supervised hands-on activities with the SSEP
( 25 minutes)
VI.
Reviewing activities with regard to the initial question.
(10 minutes)
VII.
Assessment of the workshop (5 minutes)
T AKE A WAY S KILLS
We are expecting attendees to leave the workshop with a greater appreciation for the sources of difficulty in CTSS courses and some ideas of simple hands-on activities that can be used to help make the material more approachable to the students. They will have some experience with these activities and knowledge about how to acquire the equipment and lesson plans so that they could begin using these activities at their
R EFERENCES
[1] M. Simoni, M. Aburdene, F. Fayyaz. “Workshop: Understanding learning difficulties in continuous-time signals and systems courses and making these courses more accessible”. in IEEE Digital Signal
Processing and Signal Processing Education Workshop. 2013 August
11th , in press.
[2] J. interpretation of the importance and difficulty of concepts in signals and systems,” in Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2010 IEEE , Oct.
2010, pp. T3G–1 –T3G–6.
[3] K. Wage, J. Buck, and C. Wright, “Obstacles in signals and systems conceptual learning,” in Digital Signal Processing Workshop, 2004 and the 3rd IEEE Signal Processing Education Workshop. 2004 IEEE 11th ,
Aug. 2004, pp. 58 – 62.
[4] M.F.Aburdene and K. Nepal, “Wow! linear systems and signal processing is fun!”, Proceedings IEEE Frontiers in Education
Conference (FIE), 2011 , pp. F1G-1 - F1G-6.
[5] M. Aburdene, F. Fayyaz, and M. Simoni. “Analog-Circuit-Based
Activities to Improve Introductory Continuous-Time Signals and
Systems Courses,” Proceedings ASEE Annual Conference and
Exposition . Atlanta, GA, 2013.
[6] L. Huettel, “Integration of a dsp hardware-based laboratory into an introductory signals and systems course,” in Proceedings, ASEE
National Conference and Exposition , 2006.
[7] J.E. Corter, J.V. Nickerson, S.K. Esche, C. Chassapis, S. Im, and J. Ma,
“Constructing Reality: A Study of Remote, Hands-On, and Simulated
Laboratories”, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction ,
Vol. 14, No. 2, Article 7, August 2007.
[8] M. Simoni, “Work in Progress – A Hardware Platform for a Continuous-
Time Signals and Systems Course.” Proceedings – IEEE Frontiers in
Education Conference (FIE), 2011, pp. SG4, [Online]. Available: http://fie-conference.org/fie2011/papers/1405.pdf.