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1.INTRODUCTIONThis is an era of information explosion, full of social change and uncertainty. In view of the fierce competition in the market, enterprises can only survive with high quality products and continuous innovation. Therefore, it is critical to have talented employees for the enterprises to develop and keep growing. Generally the qualified employees have the following characteristics: they have a lofty sense of professional responsibility and professionalism and also, they can figure out and solve practical problems properly and are able to design complex technical systems; moreover, they usually have excellent interpersonal skills and spirit of cooperation as well as the motivation and ability of innovation[1-3]. Huazhong University of Science and Technology is a comprehensive research university, and it is a cradle to train students with the ability of innovation. A great number of students majored in optoelectronics have graduated each year from the school of optoelectronic information which has a good reputation. In order to enhance undergraduate students’ ability of engineering design, we carry out teaching based on optoelectronic related course group in junior year aimed at improving students’ photoelectric system design ability, when different courses are combined and work together closely. Since students lack the product design experience, we apply the project-based learning[4-5] method. Through a project design, students can experience program demonstration and system realization in the whole process. Not only can it strengthen students’ engineering design ability and engineering awareness, but also it is helpful for their future study and career. Moreover, since students have long been accustomed to education methods called ‘indoctrination’, students lack of self-management and self-confidence to face challenges. We designed a fully open teaching environment to stimulate students’ learning initiative and innovative thinking so that students improve their problem-solving skill in the process of overcoming difficulties and setbacks. 2.OPTOELECTRONICS RELATED COURSE GROUPUndergraduate program for specialty in optoelectronic information science and engineering is divided into four parts: general education, information science courses, professional core courses and professional elective courses. The curriculum system design accords with the “integrated curriculum” principle, that is to break the barriers and increase the relevance between different courses so that they can serve for a common goal. For training the ability of system design, the curriculum system of optoelectronic related course group is shown in Figure 1: Students are required to take courses including programming language, circuit design module, optical module in the first two years, and have a basic ability for program programming, circuit analysis and design. After that in the third academic year, they would study computer principle, photoelectric detection and signal processing courses. The curriculum system of optoelectronic related course group in the third year is shown in Table 1. Table 1.Courses hours and teaching objectives
Students master professional knowledge systematically through the theoretical curriculum; then their comprehension has been enhanced through experimental courses; and finally their design ability would be strengthen through project. 3.PROJECT BASED LEARNING FOR ENGINEERING DESIGN ABILITY3.1.Teaching design3.1.1.Students’ skills developing and learning pathBefore the optoelectronic system project in junior year, students have mastered the comprehensive knowledge of electronic technology, computer technology, photoelectric detection technology, software design and so on. They are trained to design products according to the project goal and technical requirements, from the aspect of engineering design view. They learn how to carry out system scheme verification, components and detector selection, cost evaluation, schematic drawing, system board drawing, circuit board producing, circuit board welding, hardware and software debugging, learn how to write technical reports and make presentations so tha students’ abilities of the following aspects can be effectively improved:
“ Optoelectronic System Course Project ” is a highly integrated, high-strength training projection. The relationship between learning path and students’ skills is shown in Figure 2, 3.1.2.The interaction between teachers and studentsTo meet the teaching goal, the course project lasts one semester which includes 32 hours for classes, 40 hours for computer practices, 8 weeks for engineering design and 1 week for system debugging. The “ Optoelectronic System Course Project ” help us build up learning community. Meanwhile, the interaction between teachers and students as well as their communication among students are taken seriously to improve the team-work ability and communication skill, as shown in Figure 3. The teacher is responsible for proposition design, proposing the design requirements, providing the necessary experimental conditions, verifying students’ design, organizing the seminar, providing guidance, reviewing and assessing the student’s performance. Then students are required to read related literature according to the proposition, evaluate the system scheme and decompose design tasks. Then, students complete the design, make a presentation and finally write a report in a collaborating way. In the “ Optoelectronic System Course Project ”, teachers are always the leader of teaching activities which can be reflected in:
It is essential for students to play an active role in learning path. Students’ subjective initiative is reflected in:
The interaction between teachers and students can be realized through seminars, QQ platform and face-to-face counseling and comments. Teachers and assistants give timely feedback to students and revise students’ cognitive errors. 3.1.3.Proposition designThe propositions of “ Optoelectronic System Course Project” are adjusted appropriately each year. The representative propositions include photoelectric guide car, photoelectric cardiotachometer, photoelectric motor speed controller, intelligent optoelectronic medical infusion controller and so on. In order to meet the teaching goals, the proposition should have the following characteristics:
3.2Stimulate students’ initiativeThe initiative of teachers and students directly determines the ultimate effect of teaching. In order to change the passive learning attitude of students, we designed an open teaching environment to stimulate students’ initiative.
In this environment, students work in a team to experience each stage of product development, and thus students’ subjective initiative has been effectively stimulated. Meanwhile, students’ team spirit has been inspired. 4TEACHING PRACTICEIn 2013, the school of optical and electronic information has invested more than 6 million RMB to construct the “Optical and Electronic Information College students public project laboratory” in order to provide students with complete experimental equipment, machining equipment, multimedia computer room and experimental debugging site which provide sufficient hardware support for teaching to be successfully conducted. The project schedule is shown in Table 2. Table 2.The teaching schedule of Optoelectronic System Course Project
The “ Optoelectronic System Course Project ” has been taught in HUST for more than ten years and has been named as school excellent course for four times. Some of students’ representative design works are shown in Figure 4. We also conducted a survey among students. Students said that they can deeply understand comprehensive knowledge learned through the project. Also, a successful design is a great positive feedback for students. By teamwork, they learn how to perform their duties as well as how to complete a challenging task efficiently. 5CONCLUSIONSThis paper takes the “ Optoelectronic System Course Project ” as an example to illustrate the training methods to enhance the students’ engineering ability based on course group. This training is project-driven and combined with engineering application. By caring out comprehensive training, students’ engineering design ability has been effectively improved. The success of the design makes students with a sense of accomplishment and self-confidence. “ Optoelectronic System Course Project ” is a popular course in HUST, and has been taught for more than ten years. It has won the honor of excellent course several times. Because of the novel teaching method, most students are attracted and participate actively. “ suffering while enjoying” is the common feeling of most students who have taken this course. Also, students take the design works and experience as an important proof material for themselves in job recruitment or application for graduation admission. ReferencesLin Jian,
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