# Empowering a Broadband Communications Course with a Unified Module on 5G and Fixed 5G Networks +
## 1 Introduction
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that 5G and F5G are presented in a unified manner to students, as the standardization of technologies and the terminology within fixed networks is currently in progress, having commenced in 2020 [1]. The proposed module is an integral part of the \"Broadband Communications\" course offered in the ninth semester at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Educators, School of Pedagogical and Technological Education (ASPETE), Athens, Greece. Its duration is six hours and it serves as the final module of the \"Broadband Communications\" course. The learning objectives of this module fall under the fourth category of [PERSON]'s taxonomy [11]. These objectives aim to: (a) spark the students to generate and test hypotheses about telecommunication systems, e.g., regarding their operation, (b) develop novel strategies to reach goals under challenging conditions of network operation, e.g., via using different network architectures, and (c) address specific problems via selecting among various alternatives, e.g., access standards. It is also worth pointing out that the curriculum of the \"Broadband Communications\" courses in other universities focuses mainly on multimedia applications and technologies, access standards, Internet of Things applications, TCP/IP model, broadband television, radio systems, and network operations to ensure user's Quality of Experience (QoE), the physical layer, e.g., principles of digital transmission, signal propagation, etc. The module proposed here is one out of a few that, in addition to these topics, incorporates 5G topics in its curriculum, and to the best of our knowledge, it is the only \"Broadband Communications\" course that discusses 6G. Upon the module's completion, the students were asked to fill out a questionnaire consisting of seven questions, which (a) allowed us to study the impact of this module on the students' knowledge, (b) offered them the opportunity to highlight the most exciting topics, not only in this module but also of the whole \"Broadband Communications\" course, and (c) empowered them to suggest further subjects for the next academic year. In total, 48 students filled in the questionnaire, 32 in the previous academic year and 16 students in this academic year. The examination of these surveys clearly indicated the positive impact of this module on the students' cognitive skills, which is the major outcome of this study. In addition, 20 multiple-choice questions were offered to the students to evaluate their obtained knowledge and reveal possible misconceptions. This work is an extended version of [12], and the novel parts compared with [12] are the following:  
1. The learning material offered to the students is elaborated more and is enriched to include the first results and outcomes regarding how 6G is shaping over its first seven years (2017-2023). 2. The same questionnaires were also provided to the students of the current academic year to validate the outcomes of this study further. 3. The students were offered a 20-question multiple-choice quiz to evaluate their acquired knowledge, which was analyzed to point out possible difficulties and misconceptions about the topics of this module.