The Learning Outcomes of the Exam Question in the Input/Output Topic in Computer Architecture

Abstract

The Input/Output (I/O) topic as a branch of the Computer Architecture field has been considered a key topic in both the Computer Science and the Computer Engineering curricula. Years of teaching have demonstrated this topic to be difficult for students to understand. Having made some changes to the methodology used to teach the topic and to the infrastructure used for practice, we have analysed the results and concluded that the research should be more expert-centric than novice-centric. In this turnaround some exam questions have been analysed in order to determine the real learning outcomes achieved.