Teaching an undergraduate class vs. graduate class: is there a difference?

Abstract

During the past few years, prior to obtaining his doctorate, the first author had considerable experience and success teaching several undergraduate courses in digital system design. The observation that the courses were successful is based on the credit-hour production and retention of the students in these classes. The author uses very novel and innovative teaching methods which have worked very well in the undergraduate classes. After completion of his doctorate, the author joined the Electrical Engineering Department at Wichita State University as a faculty member. As is generally the case, the author is now teaching one graduate course and one undergraduate course each semester. Are the novel ideas that work so well in the undergraduate classes being used in the graduate courses? If they are, are they working? Should a faculty member sit down and think about how he will teach a graduate course? Is mentorship from a senior faculty member desirable, especially as it pertains to teaching graduate courses? The focus of this paper is on describing the approach used and possible solutions to these questions.