Study on Design Education Plan Using Microcontroller Board Prototyping Tool

Unlike in the past, where the expression of the form was given a priority, with the widening of the scopes of the designs, the proportion of design education institution curricula targeting user experience and the application of technology is continually and gradually increasing. Open source microcontroller boards such as Arduino have initiated attracting attention as a countermeasure against these changes. These prototyping tools have many advantages for the diversification of expression and design verification in the design field and therefore have a high likelihood of being introduced into many design education institutes; however, the tools act as high entry barriers for design students who lack engineering knowledge. Although various educational content and tools have been developed to address the issue of barrier, existing solutions remain insufficient as alternatives for the purpose of activation. In this study, we investigated the present state of related education content and conducted a pilot workshop using a prototype microcontroller board with simplified coding. We intend to use the results of this investigation to develop study material for design education. We started by conducting a survey regarding the pre-university education situation. It was observed that engineering education opportunities are insufficient and the problem of mutual application between educations due to course-based education was not realized. We also analyzed the characteristics of simplified training tools using the microcontroller to establish a direction for educational design and conducted a pilot workshop using the microcontroller toolkit with a simplified coding process based on this content. Students who lack a basic knowledge of engineering technology received instruction, and after completing minimum preliminary training, they proceeded to practical exercises that involved utilizing the toolkit. Through this process, we identified the need for a simple-type microcontroller board with low-complexity for use in educating students majoring in design. We also identified some obstacles that serve as barriers to entry of utilizing microcontroller board. Based on these results, we propose several functional requirements and teaching guidelines for prototyping toolkits for design education.