DIY Smart House : Exploration and Practice of IoT MOOC Education

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is gradually coming into daily life with the continuous innovation of our society. A large variety of IoT applications emerge and enhance the efficiency of traditional industries. With the booming of the IoT industry, the training of the IoT engineers and experts becomes more and more important. MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), as a new model of teaching in the 21st century, poses an efficient way in the IoT training system. We have investigated some popular MOOC platforms, among which the IoT-related online courses have attracted a lot of users’ attention and participation. We also found some deficiencies in these courses through deep studies. Specifically, these courses only focus on specific aspects of the whole IoT technology stack, and are not friendly to new beginners. Moreover, they mainly focus on pure theories while well-designed practice content is lacking to help the understanding of these theories.This paper presents a case study of IoT MOOC education, "DIY Smart House", implemented in Zhejiang University, China. The detailed course design are shown and the teaching effect are evaluated. The results show that, the teaching efficiency is significantly improved in the IoT training system with the help of online tools like IoT platforms.