Teaching Ranging and Localization using Bluetooth on Android Devices
Studies show that students taught with the use of technology gained knowledge and developed a more positive attitude towards the subject’s content when compared to students taught by a traditional method.
In response to this trend, mobile applications (apps) are being developed to customize the learning experiences of students. In order to test this idea, a lecture was given in Clarkson University's Digital Signal Processing
class and SUNY Potsdam's SOAR program where students were asked to take a pre and post quiz. The post quiz was administered after students had received the lecture and gone through several exercises. The exercises were performed
on mobile Android devices and were designed to reinforce the concepts taught in the lecture. The bar graph below depicts the performance of the SOAR students and their improvement after receiving the lecture.
The same experiment and excersises were performed in Clarkson University's Digital Signal Processing Course. The results from the prequiz, postquiz, and the students' improvement are depicted in the bar graph below.
It is interesting to note the differences between the two test groups. SOAR is designed for "Third Age" peers who are interested in taking a short course to expand their learning and knowlegde. These participants need not
come from a technical background, and they may not have much experience with mobile devices or the Android platform. In contrast, the DSP test group is formed from engineering graduate and undergraduate students with
extensive technical and formal education backgrounds. The results appear to show improvement in both groups, which may indicate that this teaching style is effective over a wide variety of individuals. These figures, as well as a full analsysis of the methods and results can be found
in the paper at the Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) 2017.