Arduino — Enabling engineering students to obtain academic success in a design-based module

Abstract

A key graduate attribute for engineering students is the design and development of solutions for real-life problems. Enabling students to grasp engineering design principles often proves challenging, especially within the African context. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how the introduction of the Arduino microprocessor into a design-based module for undergraduate students has yielded outstanding results in this regard. Up until the end of 2014, students could choose their own microprocessor platform for designing electronic circuits required for specific applications. However, this led to several challenges, including the unavailability of components and the high costs of the microprocessors. Introducing the Arduino microprocessor as the preferred option in 2015 overcame many of these challenges, while at the same time leading to an improvement in the academic achievement of the registered students. A case study was used in this research along with descriptive statistics of the collected data. This data highlights that more than 90% of the students successfully completed this design-based module, while 70% felt that it really helped them to better understand the theoretical knowledge. This microprocessor has been recommended for future use in additional modules as it yielded positive results in 2015.

A Review of Embedded Systems Education in the Arduino Age: Lessons Learned and Future Directions

“…This observation is also directly related to the conclusions reached and actions recommended in [5]. Such an advantage does not only help in improving students' performance in classes [14,15], but it can also attract students to the engineering major. For example, switching the course technology to Arduino in [18] has resulted in minimizing the students' evasion rate from the computer engineering program.…”

“…This still offers both low-level and high-level knowledge as in [16]. Both approaches address "the lack of low-level knowledge" concern raised in [11,14].…”

“…As for the effect on students' performance, the percentage of students successfully passing the course in [14] has increased, after using Arduino, from 61% to 92% in module I and from 66% to 93% in module II. In [15], a study conducted over three consecutive semesters revealed that 94% of students selected Arduino for their course projects.…”

“…Inspecting the first metric in Table 1 shows that Arduino was the single learning platform adopted throughout the course in [10,14,16,17]. In [11], Arduino was compared against FPGAs and the PIC microcontroller used in previous course offerings.…”

An Open Electronic Prototyping Platform as Resource for Teaching

“…The use of Arduino as a facilitator in the teaching of electronics and robotics has been approached in several studies, such as in [Pinto et al 2012], [Chang et al 2009], [ Hertzog and Swart 2016] which presents the training of teachers in the field of electronics, to disseminate and insert the use of Arduino, as a low-cost platform in the daily life of public schools. These studies do not measure the relation between the classes performance using and not using the Arduino.…”