EMPLOYING KAHOOT GAMING TOOL TO TEACH ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPAGATION AND SIGNAL TRANSMISSION THROUGH OPTICAL FIBERS

Teaching electromagnetic (EM) propagation and signal transmission through optical fibers presents several challenges to educators and students mainly due to the complicated (and time-consuming) mathematics involved as well as the difficulty in associating those mathematics with actual facts regarding propagation and transmission processes.In that respect, the Kahoot gaming tool was employed for the visualization of certain aspects of propagation and transmission with the aim students to develop a practical knowledge on those processes before encountering them in a mathematical manner.More specifically, Kahoot was used to visualize propagating modes (an essential concept of electromagnetic propagation) as well as intramodal (chromatic) dispersion (an essential impairment phenomenon) that both cause difficulties to several students.Employment of Kahoot is facilitated by the fact that Kahoot is a mobile-device application with a usable free version that can be easily embodied in an engineering course.The instruction on the above processes by means of Kahoot took about two one-and-a-half hour lectures that precede the relevant mathematical analysis.Regarding propagating modes, students were given pictures of fibers with specified core and cladding refractive indices and operating at a commonly used wavelength and were asked to include the supported modes as the diameter of the fiber core increases.Regarding intramodal dispersion, the students were given a picture of a single-mode fiber (of a specified core diameter and refractive indices) that is activated by a laser source.Two different laser sources were considered, each with a specified linewidth and the students were asked to observe views of the effect of dispersion on the transmission of a pulse-train (including possible overlapping of the transmitted pulses) and calculate the widening of the transmitted pulses for each laser source as the length of the fiber increases.An important follow-up is for the students to associate the Kahoot pictures with the mathematical analysis presented in the subsequent lecture.The whole process was evaluated by means of a short questionnaire distributed to students which shows that visualization through Kahoot helps them develop a better understanding of electromagnetic propagation and signal transmission through fibers, facilitating, at the same time, the relevant mathematical analysis (particularly regarding dispersion).The presentation took place during five two-teaching-hour lectures in the framework of the 6 th -semester "Optical Communications" course at the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering Educators of the School of Pedagogical & Technological Education (ASPETE), a tertiary educational institution, located in Athens Greece.Future use of Kahoot could include attenuation phenomena (that are, anyway, easier for students to understand) as well as the phenomenon of polarization-mode dispersion (PMD).