Designing an Autonomous Vehicle System Design Course for COVID-19 Remote Learning under First Principles of Instruction Framework

Abstract

In order to cultivate the expertise in developing autonomous vehicles (AVs) in the future, there is an emergence of courses on holistic AV system design for undergraduate engineering students. This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of a cross-disciplinary AV system design course developed under the First Principles of Instruction (FPI) framework. FPI-guided learning design facilitates students to learn effectively due to structured coverage of activation, demonstration and application in their learning when developing the product. Through the guided development, the developed course should facilitate students in developing a well-constructed and productive AV system, and cultivate students' holistic engineering competencies (e.g. creativity, problem solving). From survey responses, students held more positive perceptions towards the courses' objectives. Instructors' observations on artefacts produced by students also revealed that learners acquired high-order thinking skills and psychomotor skills after completing the course. This paper also discusses how the course can be re-designed in the second cohort for remote learning during the COVID-19 period, such that students can learn even if they cannot physically access the workshop studio and attend workshop training.