Enhancing Logic Design Education with a Low-Cost Arduino Take-Home Lab

This paper presents a low-cost, Arduino-based take-home laboratory kit for teaching combinational and sequential logic design, addressing critical challenges exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic in engineering education. The solution leverages Arduino Uno's dual functionality as both programmable signal generator and logic analyzer, enabling students to conduct complete logic design experiments at home. Unlike traditional labs requiring shared equipment, this portable setup eliminates hygiene concerns while maintaining hands-on learning with 74xx series ICs. Post-pandemic evaluations show the kit successfully replicates centralized lab outcomes in logic design lectures, while providing new flexibility for self-paced learning. The system's cost-effectiveness (< 10% of commercial kits) provides institutions with a scalable alternative to costly centralized lab infrastructure, eliminating the need for dedicated lab spaces, specialized equipment (e.g., logic analyzers, function generators), and technical staff to maintain facilities. By decentralizing experimentation through Arduino-based kits, departments can reallocate 80–90% of traditional lab budgets while maintaining learning outcomes, as demonstrated by post-pandemic adoption at technical universities facing resource constraints. By integrating Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle through concrete experimentation and reflective analysis, this approach offers a sustainable model for future-proofing logic design education against physical space limitations.