Fostering higher cognitive skills through design thinking in digital hardware course: A case study

Computer Science students are reportedly facing many issues in acquiring higher cognitive skills (e.g., analysis, and design). Digital hardware is one of the first courses in a typical Computer Science curriculum where students need to master these skills while analyzing and designing sequential circuits. This study investigates the pedagogical effectiveness of the Design Thinking methodology in improving students' higherorder cognitive skills in the digital hardware course. Design Thinking was embedded in the digital hardware course through a real-world design challenge where teams of students iteratively collaborated. The design problem was purposely set to necessitate knowledge and skills yet to be covered hence fostering in students' curiosity and eagerness to learn new topics, thus engaging students as active learners and meaning creators. The study demonstrates a significant gain in test scores. It also describes how to easily embed the Design Thinking process in the digital hardware curriculum.