Competence-Oriented Teaching of Antennas, Propagation, and Wireless Communications: Enabling Independent Students

Competence-oriented education aims to teach individuals the cognitive skills required to solve specific problems and the readiness needed to apply such solutions in versatile situations. We find that competence-oriented teaching is a promising paradigm in applied courses for antennas, propagation, and wireless communications. Competenceoriented laboratory courses are easy to implement when the mechanical facilities and equipment from laboratory courses are already available at the institute. Amateur radio equipment is used so that students can work independently without risking damage to delicate equipment. In this article, we describe several methods used to modify lab courses toward competence-oriented academic teaching that we have found are popular with students and enhance their learning experience.