A Project-Based Approach to Teaching IoT

Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly growing field of great interest to students and educators. However, designing and teaching a project-based IoT course can be challenging. While some textbooks and courses are already available in IoT, limited information is available on how to successfully pair the IoT curriculum with hardware and hands-on projects. More work and open discussion are needed to develop courses which successfully and effectively combine hardware and software. In the present work, we summarize how we designed and taught a graduate level IoT course at California State University, East Bay (CSUEB) by effectively pairing lectures with hands-on labs and projects. The course provided a broad introduction to IoT topics, software, and hardware through the use of hands-on projects and low-cost hardware kits (≈$544 each). By strategically combining lectures with hands-on practice, we successfully introduced computer science students to key IoT and hardware skills such as assembling devices, debugging issues, reviewing specs and data, and optimizing performance. We also share the equipment and software packages used, topics covered, labs and projects given, and lessons learned. This course was favorably reviewed by students, led to several successful capstone projects, and even helped one student to secure an internship in IoT. We anticipate that these project-based approaches to teaching and learning IoT will be beneficial to many students and educators who are interested in the IoT field.