Automatic generation of signals and systems exercises

A computer based training tool has been developed for Signals and Systems undergraduate course students. It consists in an automatic exercise generator and an automatic self assessment system that can be used by the students as many times as they want. The students use the tool to generate numerical variation of the problem, they solve it and afterword use again the tool to answer a series of questions that are automatically assessed. The proposed problem comprised a continuous time domain characterization of a linear and time invariant system and its Fourier domain and Laplace domain analysis. The automatic exercise generator is based on a simple algorithm that varies the parameters that defined the exercise in a controlled way, so the students can be trained to analyze different kind of first and second order filters. The proposed algorithm requires only an arbitrary input number to generate a new exercise. More than 2000 numerically different exercises are automatically generated and assessed. This tool can also be used as a computer based assessment system when used in an environment that guarantees the identification of the student. When used as assessment system, it has the advantage that the teacher can select the difficulty of the exercise (all the student are required to analyze the same order and type filter but with different parameters, so the cheating is quite difficult). The algorithm can be easily transferred to almost any kind of problem in Signal and Systems and other engineering disciplines