Abstract:

Traditionally the focus of education has been the in-person interaction between the student and the lecturer. The arrival of the Covid-19 lockdowns and the extraordinary measures implemented as a result of that caused a dramatic shift in the educational process. Online classes, which were originally only a supplement to the normal way of teaching, now have to fully replace it. The need to make education digital is more pressing than ever before. Lecturers start to use Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex Meetings, BigBlueButton, etc. At the University of Ruse, most of the professors and assistant professors use Google Meet and BigBlueButton. Although some measures were already taken to make some resources digitally available, much more needs to be done. Choosing a platform to use is only the beginning. The challenge is to make the education process engaging and interactive, especially for the exercise-based portions for the engineering specialties. Lecturers are tasked with redesigning their courses, according to the new online requirements. That change also includes the addition of software. The software’s main purpose is to better illustrate and attempt to simulate the processes and systems that students need to master. In that way, at least part of the practical nature of the exercises can be retained. Active learning methods are also a critical part of online education.

The paper presents the application of active and interactive learning methods used to teach the topic “Binary Multipliers” implemented with different computer-based tools, such as MS Excel (electronic spreadsheets), Logisim (for simulation of digital combinational and sequential circuits), ISE Project Navigator (for programming the FPGA-based laboratory board used in the educational process), LearningApps (for creating interactive multimedia applications), Augmented Reality applications (for creating interactive applications, used in smartphones or tablets), etc. Students can be paired or divided into small groups, which will help them to improve their collaboration and communication skills. This topic is not an easy one, because students need to focus on binary data, which may be confusing in the beginning. Active learning and interactive methods increase students’ motivation and help them to develop important skills for engineering professions.

Keywords:

Active and interactive learning methods, binary multipliers, e-learning, MS Excel, Logisim, FPGA & Xilinx.