A course on Multimedia QoS Networking: development and evaluation of on-campus offering

Multimedia networking applications are becoming increasingly popular and the ongoing research in this field is providing a progressively more sophisticated understanding of the underlying principles of providing quality of service (QoS) for networked multimedia applications. To provide education in this emerging area, which is of increasing importance for electrical, computer, and industrial engineers, a course on Multimedia QoS Networking has been developed at Arizona State University. To provide the students with a balanced education in the fundamental principles and in the current development trends the course structure has three components: 1) lecture (40% of class contact time), in which the instructor presents the basic principles, 2) topic exploration (30% of contact time), which expands on the basic principles and explores current trends through student presentations, and 3) paper critique, in which the readings from the recent literature are critically evaluated and examined in instructor-led discussions (30% of contact time). The on-campus offering of the course was evaluated through the assessment of student work, student surveys, and student interviews. The assessment indicates the students were very positive toward the course structure, especially the paper critiques and their in-class discussions.