Abstract:

Digital generation students should not be taught as in the past. They were born with technologies and they spend most of the time in Internet. It is necessary, through the effective innovative educational programming tools and didactic models, to modernize the education system to the digital generation, and also to reorient it to active online learning by introducing the research approach into the learning process.

The paper presents the effective usage of a newly developed at the departments of Telecommunications and Computer Systems and Technologies at the University of Ruse “Angel Kanchev” original interactive educational software for studying convolutional codes in the e-learning courses “Coding in Telecommunication Systems” and “Reliability and Diagnostics of Computer Systems” in the University of Ruse “Angel Kanchev”. The MATLAB-based interactive simulation model demonstrates the process of encoding a 3-bit message using a (2, 1) convolutional encoder with a constraint length L = 3, n = 2 mod-2 adders and a coding rate k/n = 1/2. The model consists of three parts (an input register, an encoder, and an output register) and three types of modes (Step by Step, Automatic and Manual) are available.

In Step by Step mode, the learner is able to follow every action in the encoding process. In Automatic mode, student can follow the entire encoding process from the beginning to the end. In Manual mode, the learner needs to select operations and the model checks the sequence of actions and evaluates the learner with points for each correct answer. The interactive simulation model is implemented in the courses “Coding in Telecommunication Systems” and “Reliability and Diagnostics of Computer Systems” by students at the University of Ruse.

Keywords:

Coding theory, encoding, inoovative learning, convolutional codes, interactive educational software, MATLAB.