Teaching A Hands On Biomedical Instrumentation Course Jointly At Two Institutions

The Biomedical Engineering (BME) department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) has taught a microcontroller applications course for many years. In this course, students learn how to program a microcontroller and interface it to hardware to develop biomedical instruments, such as a heart rate monitor and temperature sensor. With the development of a joint BME department at UNC and North Carolina State University (NCSU), the faculty realized that it would be beneficial to teach the class jointly at NCSU, as the students there needed more hands-on opportunities in biomedical instrumentation. The class meets twice each week using videoconferencing equipment. Both classrooms are equipped with multiple screens for viewing video of the distant location, as well as sharing a computer desktop. Students work in the laboratory on weekly homework assignments and “miniprojects”, in which they program microcontrollers and develop biomedical instruments. The laboratories on each campus have equivalent hardware setups, as well as videoconferencing equipment so that faculty can help the students remotely. The primary teacher for this class is based at UNC, and he occasionally travels to NCSU to work with those students directly. In addition, a faculty member at NCSU is present for most classes, and he is available to provide assistance to the NCSU students outside of class. In this manner, the NCSU students have opportunities to get “in-person” help from a faculty member. Feedback on this experience was measured at mid-semester and at the end of the semester. This experience can serve as a model for teaching courses jointly at our universities as well as elsewhere.