This paper reports the results of a study in teaching courses for control area network (CAN) systems. The CAN systems course prepares students for their professional careers in vehicle networks, a topic which will become more crucial and compulsory in forthcoming decades. Furthermore, this paper investigates the underlying pedagogy of CAN systems. This study utilised inductive teaching and learning methods such as inquiry-based, problem-based and project-based learning. We developed an automotive electronic training board that may confront the students with authentic problems. We also synthesised a pattern CAN unit that assists students in distinguishing shortcomings or excellences in their hardware design. An evaluation of the hybrid approach using inductive methods indicates that there seemed to be a significant improvement for students, although the data were too insufficient to support this approach.
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