Effective Collaborative Inquiry-based Learning in Undergraduate Computer Networking Curriculum

Abstract

In 2010, California State University Los Angeles (CSULA) received a CCLI grant from NSF to explore a good solution to incorporate collaborative project-based and inquiry-based learning in undergraduate computer networking curriculum. The project goals include: 1) Establish a cyberinfrastructure to enable remote learning which significantly improve the learning efficiency of students on a commuter campus; 2) Foster students' hands-on design and implementation skills in networking field; 3) Improve teaching and learning efficiency by integrating project-based and inquiry-based learning pedagogy. During the past two years, an effective infrastructure has been built to support various online collaborative learning activities; and our proposed teaching strategies have been continuously improved to meet the needs of a diversified student body. The on-going project assessment shows that project-based and inquiry-based learning in networking classes has generated positive impact on students' mastery of related course concepts. Particularly, students working collaboratively in a well-established team environment tend to have a higher satisfaction in their learning and can better achieve the learning outcomes. Some of the assessment data were presented in ASEE conference last year.In this paper, we focus to answer one question "How to effectively incorporate collaborative inquiry-based learning in undergraduate computer networking curriculum". First of all, the paper introduces a general framework derived from our best practice for integrating inquiry-based learning into the classroom that can be applied to any engineering course. Next, effective teaching strategies to implement the above-mentioned framework, such as how to balance between theory and hands-on activities; how to seamlessly integrate inquiry-based learning into rigorous curriculum; and how to ensure student learning in open-ended inquiry-based activities, will be presented. Concrete examples will be provided to show how to design inquiry-based projects for representative undergraduate networking topics and how to conduct them in classroom to enhance the learning of students from minority groups. The paper will also share the lessons learned through our teaching practice and project assessment, and highlight Dos and Don'ts for educators who are interested in incorporating inquiry-based learning strategy in their teaching.