Managing Prerequisites for Junior Course CMOS VLSI in Electronics Engineering

This paper proposes a method to: (i) identify the prerequisite concepts in a Junior course CMOS VLSI Circuits (ii) assess the competency of students in the identified concepts (iii) identify the weak concepts, and (iv) provide remedial measures for addressing the weak concepts. The study pertains to undergraduate students of Electronics and Communication Engineering. Prerequisites for a course are the required prior knowledge of concepts learnt in previous semesters. The student attainment in the course will be adversely affected, if the attainment in prerequisite courses is not satisfactory. The pedagogical practices of providing awareness of the extent of linkage to prerequisites for the course, and retention of concepts for future courses are also presented here. Engineering education is a phase wise advancement of the student from Freshman to Sophomore, Junior and Senior. At each level of education the student is faced with a daunting task of retaining the concepts learnt in previous semesters and applying these concepts to understand new concepts or solve engineering problems. An attainment of 66% in the relevant course outcomes in previous semester provides the basis for identification of weak concept, which is further tested for retention by conducting a quiz in the identified concept.