Abstract:

The rapid development of existing and emerging technologies in recent years makes adequate education an increasingly difficult challenge. It is clear that securing a good career opportunity requires much deeper technical skills, knowledge, and competencies, gained through the mastery of mathematics and science. STEM education helps to combine several complex disciplines by offering complex information in an understandable way. Students are more willing to work and study when problems are presented with a proper context, and the knowledge they acquire is longer lasting. Another approach for increasing students’ engagement is to use interactive and active methods when new material is presented. One major topic that is difficult for most students to understand, but is relevant and has interesting applications, is “Convolutional Codes”. In telecommunication, a convolutional code is a type of error-correcting code. Convolutional codes are used to achieve reliable data transfer in numerous applications, such as digital video; wireless, mobile, or satellite communications. These applications give the students the feelings and motivation that the knowledge they will learn will be useful in the future. To attract students’ attention to the course content, active and interactive methods are used. Project-based learning, problem-solving, and collaboration are used, because these methods are preferred by students, but also encourage them to develop critical and analytical thinking, a methodology how to solve a problem, and many other skills. The material is used in the educational process in a few courses in different engineering specialties at the University of Ruse. With the implementation of the active and interactive methods, the results of the students were improved in the most academic years.

Keywords:

Convolutional encoders, telecommunication systems, active and interactive methods.