Improving the effectiveness of microcontroller education

The increased power and functionality of modern microcontrollers provides both an opportunity and a challenge to educators. Increased complexity, the necessity of integrating a hands-on lab experience, and downward pressure on total curriculum hours demand a significant investment of time to modernize microcontroller education, which few educators can afford. However, a successful microcontrollers course provides a unique opportunity to equip students to produce large, complex systems in their capstone design course. This paper details the evolution of an approach which provides an integrated course and laboratory experience for students. Results of these changes produced quantitative differences in the resulting capstone design courses, validating the approach.