An Application-Based Approach to Presenting Random DSP Concepts to a Non Traditional Study Body

Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) students have on average been out of school for several years and come from a wide range of backgrounds but also have a common work experience. This paper discusses the challenges faced by faculty in teaching a first year graduate-level discrete time random signals course offered for students enrolled towards the MSEE degree at NPS and the steps taken to facilitate student understanding of the topics covered in the course. We describe our student hands-on approach designed to emphasize applications and report our findings.