Professor Mark Yoder, Ph.D., coauthor of the top-sellingtextbook Signal Processing First: A Multimedia Approach,recently transitioned the signal processing course atRose-Hulman from The MathWorks, Inc. MATLAB®software to the LabVIEW graphical development environment.Rose-Hulman has been ranked the No. 1 undergraduateengineering program for seven consecutiveyears by U.S. News & World Report. This move takesadvantage of the intuitive nature of graphical programmingand the students’ ability to focus on and interact withsignal processing concepts.
Dr. Yoder created numerous online interactive LabVIEWsimulations for student experimentation and mini-projectsthat mirror those found in the Signal Processing Firsttextbook, which has been adopted by more than 70schools worldwide and translated into four languages.
Improving the Learning Experience
Dr. Yoder’s primary goal was to increase the pedagogicalgain through graphical interaction and implementation ofconcepts. Dr.Yoder did this by converting the course toLabVIEW and measured the success with a studentsurvey at the end of the course.
The survey results showed that students quicklybecame comfortable with and even preferred LabVIEW.Most students had no LabVIEW knowledge but found iteasier to learn than the MATLAB software by a 4 to 1margin. Dr. Yoder found similar results when assessingthe usefulness of LabVIEW in solving signal processingproblems. In general, students preferred LabVIEW as alearning tool by a 3 to 1 margin.
In addition to the survey, Dr. Yoder conducted a conceptinventory assessment test to measure students’ signalprocessing knowledge before and after the course.The test results, which show the highest gain ever,along with the survey results, have been published in apaper at the 2006 ASEE National Annual Conference.
Getting Students Started
With the help of his students, Dr. Yoder created interactivesignal processing simulations and miniprojects,using both graphical programming andtextual math with LabVIEW MathScript. Students usedLabVIEW to implement basic and advanced signalprocessing algorithms with a custom toolkit createdby Dr. Yoder. This toolkit – created using built-infunctions, custom VIs, and the new sound card APIintroduced in LabVIEW 8.0 – is accessible via acustom subpalette to aid students with their miniprojects.
Virtual Labs – Hands-On Learning
With live, interactive LabVIEW simulations, students gainhands-on experience from Dr. Yoder’s course Web site.These simulations offer students the option to easilyrevisit concepts and explore theory covered in classand in the textbook. You can find these resources on theofficial Signal Processing First companion Web site atRose-Hulman.edu/DSPFirst.
The migration of Dr. Yoder’s course to LabVIEW hasproven successful at the Rose-Hulman Institute ofTechnology. Students not only prefer LabVIEW and findit easier to use but also learn signal processingconcepts better with it.
