The major objective of the control engineering laboratory course teaching materials we have improved is to enable students to experience control theory effectively by stabilizing an inverted pendulum on a cart. Having used questionnaires and experiments to identify course weaknesses we tested our modifications to teaching materials in mock classes. We found that although students liked the new teaching materials, they could not, in practice, stabilize their pendulums. Considering all constraints, we implemented new hardware specifications for shorter pendulums. This enabled students to stabilize their pendulums and, in doing so, proved the effectiveness of the developed materials.