An Inductive Approach to Teaching Wireless Communication Fundamentals

For engineering students, learning wireless communication fundamentals is often faced with the difficulty of relating theory to real-world practice. In this paper, we address the use of inductive teaching methods in wireless communication education for undergrad students in UAE University. We offer a design of a series of collaborative laboratory and fieldwork tasks that can be integrated with the typical material of a course about wireless communication fundamentals. In addition, the paper outlines some low-cost and ultra-portable wireless communication devices that can be used in performing these tasks. The proposed design of the field and lab tasks follows a discovery-based learning approach that allows the students to learn about the wireless channel effects on transmitted signals before the relevant theory is presented to them in regular lectures. Moreover, the analytical modelling of wireless signal path loss, which is a core topic in a typical wireless communication course curriculum, is introduced to the students following a problem-based learning approach. Based on the outcome of the proposed tasks, the students will be asked to mathematically determine the amount of power lost by a wireless signal in its path to a receiver by using their background in statistics. Different from the abstract concepts introduced in textbooks, the proposed approach helps the students to touch and feel the nature of wireless channels. Furthermore, it aims at strengthening their ability to form a mathematical model, which is a very important research tool in the wireless communication field.