Possible Uses of Microcontrollers in Higher Education

In 2016 the UK released the BBC micro:bit in partnership with 29 organisations. The pocket size codeable computer was "intended to transform young people from passive consumers of technology into digital innovators." [1]
The BBC micro:bit is available in "60 countries and 24 languages, and in excess of four million devices have been delivered to end users globally with an increasing demand year over year." [2]
The micro:bit joined a long list of boards such Arduino, the Scratch Pico Board, Microsoft's .NET Gadgeteer, Crumble and Codebug in being used to educate children.
The process of 'creatively designing tangible interactive objects or systems using programmable hardware' such as microcontrollers is referred to as physical computing. [2]
The advantages of physical computing in the classroom have been highlighted and researched thoroughly:
1. With physical computing, students are able to focus on ideas rather than restrictions [2] 2. Girls have described growing in confidence [3] 3. As well as technical skills, studies Horn et al. [4] and Marshall [5] describe how physical computing environments can have a positive effect on collaborative and active learning. 4. Hodges et al. [3] report that students with a diversity of skills and abilities support and learn from each other.
With few exceptions, the use of microcontrollers such as the micro:bit to teach seems to have stopped at secondary education.
A cursory look at the top 10 universities for Computer Science in the UK [7] show just one [8] uses the micro:bit to teach. However, seven of the top ten mention using the micro:bit in outreach activities.