Coursework for Academics....

We are now discussing the changes to the courses for next academic year. The main push on at the moment is directed at enhancing our teaching of software to the electronics undergraduates.

COMP1010 Big changes here to alter how we teach this module. The previous course centered on teaching as much C as possible using Visual Studio, with a lab a week reinforcing the lecture topic. To improve things by engaging the students more we are moving a lot of the C syntax and content into the semester 2 course. This leaves room for the introduction of AVR microcontrollers along with a bit of computer architecture. Hopefully this will engage the students immediately. The programming will be done in AVRStudio with WinAVR as the compiler. The assessment will be significantly changed to favour two "Exam Labs" which will be open book individual assessments. The first will have a lot of direction and the second will be solving a problem. Appropriate assessment of any course is essential for its success, and I personally belive in problem based learning as one of the most enjoyable and effective techniques.

ELEC1013 The main change here is the labs have been shortened and there will be more of them. There is also an open question whether to include an AVR Microcontroller that can be used over USB or networked to encourage the Computer Science students who take this course to mess about with gadgets.