Course description
The course develops undergraduate student knowledge and skills students on the design and development of a complete project in Computer Engineering. Students work on a sizable project in which they develop a computer software system and demonstrate its functionality. The course has been updated to include design thinking principles.
Description of the participants
This is an elective course offered in the 3rd year of the Bachelors in Computer Engineering program conducted by the Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Pulchowk Campus, Institute of Engineering (IOE), Tribhuvan University. A total of 96 undergraduate students engaged in the course in the spring 2024 semester.
Description of gamified design thinking activities
The ICT-INOV design thinking methodology for innovation and digital learning platform was introduced in the course in the spring 2023 academic year and continues to be used in the spring 2024 semester. The methodology and platform will continue to be used in the following academic years.
Specifically, an activity named “Minor Project Computer” was created in the ICT-INOV platform. The activity is tailored directly to the needs of the course, although it can be used in other similar courses.
Students worked in groups of 3 – 4 individuals. The number of teams engaged in the project was 32. The activity was structured through design thinking steps as follows:
Step 1. Team introduction.
Students were asked to create teams and select a team name.
Step 2. Project proposal.
Students worked in their teams to select a theme for their project. They were asked to post the title and a short description of their project along with their team’s name and group members on the ICT-INOV digital learning platform. They presented their project topic in class and uploaded links to their presentations on the platform.
Step 3. Mid-term presentation and report.
Student presented the mid-term progress report of the project. They posted links to their mid-term report and presentation slides on the ICT-INOV digital learning platform. They further posted characteristic photos of the system under development as well as links to their source code and datasets.
Step 4. Final presentation and report.
Students presented the final implementation of their project and corresponding implementation report. They uploaded the presentations on the course shared digital space and posted the links on the ICT-INOV digital learning platform. Furthermore, students posted on the ICT-INOV platform links to their source code and datasets and characteristics screenshots of their implemented project.
