2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Preliminary Experience and Impact of Experiment-focused Teaching Approach in a Computer Architecture Course in Computer Science

Presented at Computing and Information Technology Division (CIT) Technical Session 2

One of the key knowledge areas in Computer Science (CS) is Digital Logic and Computer Architecture where the learning outcome is an understanding of Boolean algebra, logic gates, registers, or arithmetic logic units, etc. and explaining how software and hardware are related to a computing system. Experimental Centric based Instructional Pedagogy (ECP) with portable laboratory instrumentation might provide real hands-on experience to obtain a practical
understanding of those concepts at a lower cost compared with virtual hands-on laboratories that lack direct interaction with real apparatus or no integration of labs in the course. This work presents the initial adaptation of ECP to introduce the fundamentals of digital logic concepts in a Computer Architecture course in Spring 2022 for the first time in a CS department at a university teaching such courses without a lab and serving predominantly minority students. To establish a
conducive and dynamic classroom environment by discovering course content through exploration, students majoring in CS were introduced to several logic gate types, worked with breadboards to connect circuits, and carried out operations to produce the necessary output using the commercial ADALM 1K Active Learning Module. To evaluate the impact of the ECP on students; performance in the class, three different evaluation methods were used, such as
classroom observation, a signature assignment, and a Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) survey. The Classroom Observation Protocol for
Undergraduate STEM (COPUS) findings indicated greater student engagement when ECP is used; the Signature assignment results indicated improved learning outcomes for students; and the MLSQ survey, which measures students; motivation, critical thinking, curiosity, collaboration, and metacognition, determined a positive impact of the ECP on the CS participants.

Authors

Miss Opeyemi Taiwo Adeniran Morgan State University [biography]

Opeyemi Adeniran is a graduate student studying advanced computing at Morgan State University, where she also works as a graduate research assistant.
Dr. Md Mahmudur Rahman Morgan State University [biography]

Dr. Mahmudur Rahman received his PhD in Computer Science in 2008 from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada with an emphasis on Medical informatics and Image Retrieval. Prior to joining as an Assistant Professor at Morgan State University in 2014, Dr. Rahman extensively conducted research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA for almost six years as a Research Scientist. He significantly contributed to research and development of the image processing, classification, and retrieval methods extensively used in the NLM’s Open-i Search Engine for biomedical literature.
Dr. Rahman has good expertise in the fields of Computer Vision, Image Processing, Information Retrieval, Machine Learning, and Data Mining and their application to retrieval of biomedical images from large collections. Since joining Morgan, Dr. Rahman also has been actively involved in basic educational and instructional research by infusing several interactive and active learning techniques in classroom to teach introductory programming courses with a goal to improve the retention rate in the CS department.
Dr. Rahman has published a book, two book chapters and around seventy articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, such as IEEE Transaction on Information Technology in Biomedicine, Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics, etc. and presented his works in numerous conferences and workshops, such as ICPR, CBMS, CLEF, CIVR, HISB, SPIE, BIBE, IEEE FIE, etc. His current research is focusing on Crowdsourcing and Deep learning techniques and their application in medical fields, especially for retrieval and diagnostic purposes.

Pursuing continuous financial support is an integral part of Dr. Rahman’s research agenda
Over the years, Dr. Rahman ¬received (as both PI and Co-PI) several competitive grants for both Imaging Informatics and Applied Machine Learning based research and also Instructional (CS Education) research, such as NSF HBCU-UP and NSF HBCU IUSE grants, and also several internal grants form MSU, such as ASCEND, I-Gap, etc.
Dr. Oludare Adegbola Owolabi P.E. Morgan State University [biography]

Dr. Oludare Owolabi, a professional engineer in Maryland, joined the Morgan State University faculty in 2010. He is the assistant director of the Center for Advanced Transportation and Infrastructure Engineering Research (CATIER) at Morgan State Universit
Neda Bazyar Shourabi Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus
Eric Sakk
Chukwuemeka Duru
Frank Efe http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5833-9862 Morgan State University
Mr. Pelumi Olaitan Abiodun http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4969-9591 Morgan State University [biography]

Pelumi Abiodun is a current doctoral student and research assistant at the Department of Civil Engineering, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland. Pelumi got his BSc and MSc degree in Physics from Obafemi Awolowo University, where he also served as a research assistant at the Environmental Pollution Research unit, in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. As part of his contribution to science and engineering, Pelumi has taught as a teaching assistant both at Morgan State University and Obafemi Awolowo University. With a passion to communicate research findings gleaned from experts in the field as he advances his career, Olaitan has attended several in-person and virtual conferences and workshops, and at some of them, made presentations on findings on air pollution, wastewater reuse, heavy metal contamination, and use of experiment-centric pedagogy in STEM fields.
Dr. Jumoke 'Kemi' Ladeji-Osias http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8645-696X National Science Foundation [biography]

Dr. J. 'Kemi Ladeji-Osias is the Deputy Division Director in the US National Science Foundation Division of Engineering Education.

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