Increasing student engagement in Digital Logic through game-based laboratory assignments

Engaging Computer Engineering students at the freshman level can be a significant challenge since students at this level have not necessarily developed the skills necessary for more interesting tasks. Student engagement during this time can determine whether students will want to continue with the major. Another challenge in teaching students at this level is insufficient subject area to solve interesting and engaging problems. At , this is particularly difficult as combinational logic and sequential logic are presented as a two course sequence. In this poster, we present problems encountered in implementing game based laboratories in Digital Logic I. We present how to cover course content and learning objectives through game based laboratory assignments through techniques such as compartmentalization and black boxing of unlearned concepts. Two examples, a Pong-based schematic capture lab and a Tic-Tac-Toe based game are presented. Qualitative and quantitative data is presented comparing student engagement and perception of learning before and after the change to game-based laboratory assignments. Preliminary data indicates that game-based laboratory assignments can increase student engagement while maintaining the same learning outcomes.