Teaching internet of things for engineering courses: A project-based cooperative approach

Abstract

Internet of things is emerging in the recent years and is changing many traditional industries in the recent years. Engineering students of several knowledge areas may benefit with the introduction of internet of things concepts in the undergraduate courses, since there is an increasingly need of professionals to work in multidisciplinary teams. This paper proposes an undergraduate course to teach internet of things concepts for engineering students using cooperative problem-based learning (CPBL). The students have to develop a project using different internet of things technologies: sensing and actuation, embedded computing, communication and networking, cloud computing, and data analytics. The proposed course may help students to improve not only their technical skills but also soft skills, such as teamwork, communication and creativity. The developed projects achieved good results, and positive feedback was received from the students. Students from engineering courses related to internet of things had a better performance than students of no internet of things-related courses.