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Session 2548

A Systems Approach to Teaching “Introduction to Electronic Communications” for ECET Students

James Z. Zhang, Kenneth Burbank, Robert Adams Department of Engineering Technology, Western Carolina University

Abstract

Traditional electronic communications course in ECET covers a wide range of topics in communications theory, with the focus on different modulation schemes and the respective receivers’ baseband structures and performances. However, it is often found that students do not necessarily grasp the essence of a communications system from a systematic perspective because of the wide coverage of content.

This article presents a systems approach to teaching an introductory course of electronic communications that effectively helps students consolidate their knowledge in electronic circuits, to be better prepared for later communications theory course(s) in terms of how different technologies are applied to a communications system, and to accumulate hands-on experience at a communications system’s level.

Introduction

Traditionally, an electronic communications course in ECET covers a wide range of topics in communications theory, with the focus on different modulation schemes such as AM, FM, BPSK, QPSK, FSK, QAM, DS-SS, FH-SS, and the respective receivers’ baseband structures and performances. While these topics are essential in communications theory, it is often found that students do not necessarily grasp the essence of a communications system from a systematic perspective, because of the wide coverage of content. It is more effective if the students un- derstand the communications systems from a systematic perspective, before they apply different modulation schemes to these systems.

This article presents a system approach to teaching an introductory course in electronic com- munications. Instead of covering various kinds of modulation schemes, the systematic approach focuses on the functionality and analysis of each block of a communications system at the circuit level. This includes message generation (for example, QPSK signal generation), signal filtration, signal amplification, mixer/modulator/demodulator, up/down frequency conversion, and so forth. Lab experiments are being developed for each system block to provide students experiential knowledge. The system’s approach uses only two basic modulation schemes (for example, FM

Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright c 2004, American Society for Engineering Education

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Zhang, J. (2004, June), A System’s Approach To Teaching “Introduction To Electronic Communications” For Ecet Students Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--12775