Practical and Projects Based Learning for Internet of Things

The Internet of things is currently a fast-emerging technology. Many sectors and industries have currently adopted IoT into their operations. This calls for IoT-trained graduates. Universities worldwide are currently teaching IoT. In this paper we discuss our experiences in teaching an IoT course at the undergraduate level. The paper discusses how we overcame the challenge of identifying IoT course content and the right learning methodology. Various learning methodologies were identified in the literature and compared. Practical and Project Based Learning (PPBL) was chosen as the learning methodology. PPBL is a modified and enhanced version of project-based learning that incorporates students’ project idea incubation. Existing papers on IoT teaching have applied a different learning methodology or do not present a detailed course content that is in line with the latest developments in the IoT industry. This paper further presents the status of IoT teaching and makes recommendations about how IoT teaching can be further adopted in Kenya. Questionnaires were issued to various universities in Kenya to find out the teaching status of IoT and challenges encountered. A questionnaire was also issued to student to find out the impact of the PPBL methodology. Results show that PPBL is an effective learning methodology.