Teaching DSP First with LabVIEW

The proponents of graphical programming (that is using graphics to program a computer, not programming a computer to do graphics) claim graphical programming is better than text-based programming; however text-based programmers far out number graphics-based programmers. This paper describes the preliminary developments of comparing the use of LabVIEW (a graphical programming language) to MATLAB (a text-based language) in teaching discrete-time signal processing (DSP). This paper presents the results of using both methods in a junior-level introduction to DSP class. The students who enter this class have had a course in continuous-time signals and systems but no DSP theory background. Several quarters of concept inventory data have been collected on the MATLAB version of the class. The same inventory was used with the LabVIEW version of the class and the results compared