Creative Education
2012. Vol.3, Supplement, 97-99
Published Online December 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ce) DOI:10.4236/ce.2012.37B025
97
Research on New Practice Teaching Mode of SPC Switching
Fundamentals Course Based on the Training Platform
Junping Gao, Rui Wu, Jianf ei Liu, Jinyong Gao, Yanmang Su
School of Information Engineer ing, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, China
Received 2012
According to the need of curriculum construction, and combined with “C&C08 SPC Switching Compre-
hensive Experimental Platform”, a new mode of practice teaching innovation and exploration for the
foundation course SPC Switching Fundamentals had been presented. Through reforming, students’ com-
prehensive practical ability was improved, comprehensive quality education was really carried out in the
course of teaching, and adaptability to the need of the society had been enhanced. The practice teaching
innovation plays positive exemplary role for practice innovation and construction of similar undergra-
duate course.
Keywords: SPC Switching Fundamentals; Teaching Innovation; Practice Education
Introduction
Communication industry plays a very important role in the
national economy, and it’s one of the important industries
which are developed and supported in China. As the basic pro-
fessional knowledge, “Switching principle” is widely used in
the field of communication engineering, and has become one of
the central curriculums for communication specialty teaching in
various higher education institutions. The purpose of this
course is to make students master the basic idea and principle
of switching technology. HUAWEI “C&C08 SPC Switching
Integrated Experimental Platform” was introduced and the
Communication Switching Experiment Center was founded in
our school, which provided great support for experimental
teaching of this course. In recent years, a series of reformation
was implemented in our experimental teaching of SPC Switch-
ing Fundamentals Course, and good effect was obtained.
New Practice Teaching Mode Ba sed on Practical
Training Platform
Theory and experimental teaching can not be separated from
each other. But no appropriate experiments were carried out
initially because of the limitation of experimental condition,
which didn’t accord with the characteristics of this course.
Therefore we purchased the “Program-controlled Switching
Experiment Equipment” produced by ZHONGYOU Science
and Technology Inc. WUHAN, and some demonstration expe-
riments are presented. Later, in order to improve the experiment
teaching further, some experiments for our course were carried
out by using EDA, DSP experimental platform and Communi-
cation Principle experimental equipment, which included PCM
coding and decoding, speech signal generation, HDB3 codes
conversion and DTMF transceiver experiments etc. The simu-
lation experiment of time slots interchange principle was also
implemented based on Simulink software package in Matlab to
make up the deficiency of the experimental teaching for the
course.
Communication Engineering Specialty became “Provincial
Characteristic Specialty” of Hebei Province in 2007. After-
wards HUAWEI “C&C08 Program-controlled Exchange Inte-
grated Experimental Platform” was introduced and the Com-
munication Exchange Experiment Center was founded for the
construction of this course. On this platform, the miniature of
telecommunication network can be constructed. All these pro-
vided the opportunity for the development of this course. We
carried out various experiment teaching reformation for SPC
Switching Fundamentals Course and established a novel com-
prehensive curriculum practice teaching system which included
three levels. They are “principle and technical level experi-
ment”, “system and network level training” and “engineering
application practice”, which is shown in Figure 1.
In this system, large commercial equipment network was
used as students’ practical training platform in “principle and
technical level experiment” and “system and network level
training”. In “engineering application practice” level, students
can contact and deeply understand the production process of
professional equipment and relevant technology standard in
off-campus practice training bases. Our practical teaching sys-
tem provided the process of demonstration, testing, design and
experience for switching technology. The experimental teach-
ing reformation was divided into three steps.
principle and technical level experi ment
system and network level training
engineering application practice
Figure 1.
Three levels of curriculum practice system.

J. P. GAO ET AL.
98
Firstly, combining C&C08 Program-controlled Switching
Comprehensive Experiment Platform and the actual teaching
situation, relevant experiments were carried out. Through prac-
tical teaching, students can master the operation principle of
communication chips and their typical application circuits.
Contacting the content in classroom teaching, such as switching
system interface circuits and their function, switching network
and control system, they can learn how to design practical in-
terface circuit, switching network and control system, and un-
derstand the basic idea and method of software design.
Secondly, we made full use of the existing experimental
conditions, explored experimental teaching innovation, devel-
oped integrated experiment and encouraged students to design
experiments by themselves. Through guidance of the complete
working process of Chinese Telecom Telephone Switching
Network, using real work as media to design teaching, the
project-based curriculum content system was established. For a
given task, students experience the planning and design process
completely, such as plan selection, experimental procedure’s
determination, selection of experimental apparatus and method,
the experimental analysis and summary report. It can fully cul-
tivate students' theoretical knowledge and comprehensive ap-
plication ability, improve their experimental skills, inspire their
enthusiasm , and make effecti ve practica l t r aining.
Thirdly, we made good use of graduation practical training,
graduation design project, experimental equipment and
off-campus practice bases to cultivate students’ practice ability.
Students can understand the digital switching system com-
pletely, design switching software skillfully according to re-
quirement of telecommunication business, and will be compe-
tent for the future work in telecommunications industry.
At the same time, we edited the experimental manual ac-
cording to teaching practice. Therefore, students can grasp the
learning contents, practice professional knowledge and skills
thoroughly. In subsequent courses, teachers gave good evalua-
tion on students’ learning and practical ability. Their competi-
tive ability in employment was increased and the period of
adaptation in future work was shortened.
Various Practical Teaching Methods
Teaching method is the key factor to improve the teaching
effect. Combining with the characteristics of this course, we
adopted the following typical teaching methods according to
different contents and stages in practice teaching.
Demonstration Teaching Method
Because the telecommunications switching equipment is
valuable and complex, students must master the correct opera-
tion steps. Thus the teachers' demonstration operation is very
important. Through demonstration students can understand the
training targets, operation rules, regulations and safety re-
quirements when they operate independently, and grasp the
professional quality gradually.
Project Driven Teaching Method
We use “project teaching method” in “task driving” methods
in practice teaching. Every project process was implemented
according to the circular process as planning, confirming task,
demonstration, training, assessment, checking and trouble-
shooting, summarization and improvement. Students’ theoreti-
cal and practical application abili ty raised dramatically through
learning theory, practical operation and integrated project de-
sign.
Case Teac h i ng Metho d
According to the strong application background of this
course, teachers can provide actual engineering case, present
questions, and organize students to analyze and discuss. In this
process, students work independently, and teachers guide be-
side. Through case teaching method, students' ability of ana-
lyzing and solving practical problems can be improved.
Scenario Teaching Method
During teaching process, the switching operation process in
various work situations was simulated. Students can get famili-
ar with the operation and maintenance work flow in switch
equipment. Through creating telecommunication business sce-
narios and working process, students can understand and master
the relative knowledge in telecommunication switching tech-
nology.
Effects in Reformation Practice
Excellent achievements were obtained in teaching system
reformation of this course. We built a complete practice envi-
ronment which included principle, technology and processes,
switch structure, data configuration, signal process, signal test
and analysis through telecommunication switching platform.
The enterprise application and business requirements were also
introduced in teaching. In late teaching, students can study
actual operation of commercial equipment through cooperating
with enterprise.
Then the knowledge can be applied in the actual work envi-
ronment through network construction, data and business con-
figuration. By cooperating with XUNFANG Cop. and HUA-
WEI Cop. of Hebei Province, the experimental conditions were
promoted and the teaching system and content were synchro-
nized with actual technical development. Through the devel-
opment of teacher training, off-campus internship and other
means, the combination of theory and engineering practice are
enhanced further. Students’ employment competitiveness was
increased, and adaptation period in future work are shortened
through training. In recent years, the employment feedback
from China Netcom, China Mobile and China Telecom Cop.
indicated that our students have a good foundation of switching
theory and adaptive ability for actual work.
Conclusion
Excellent achievements were obtained in reformation of SPC
Switching Fundamental Course Practice Teaching in our school.
The comprehensive practical ability of students was improved,
in the course of teaching the students' comprehensive quality
education was carried out really, the students’ adaptability to
the need of the society had been enhanced. It provides a new
road for undergraduate curriculum reformation and construction.
The practice teaching innovation plays positive exemplary role
for practice innovation and construction of similar undergra-
duate course.

J. P. GAO ET AL.
99
Acknowledgment
This work is supported by the teaching research and reform
key project (No. 08033) of Hebei University of Technology.
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