Highway Engineering I – CVEN332, is a junior-level course in civil engineering that covers primarily traffic engineering and transportation planning. Traffic engineering topics include isolated intersection signal timing design, intersection capacity analysis and freeway capacity analysis. In fall 2015, students collected real life and local field data in two design modules and used a traffic camera compatible with the video processing software in one design module. The objective of this study is to assess if the usage of local, real life field data and introduction of a traffic camera have any impact on increasing learning, increasing feeling of preparedness and increasing interest. It is also expected that this activity will allow students to learn solve real life problems in a course in which no field data were collected and utilized before. Feedback regarding the study was solicited on the Course Objectives & Outcomes Survey at the end of the quarter. Highly positive student feedback (ratings and comments) were received and reviewed. This paper presents the lessons learned from using the real, local traffic data and the traffic camera in the first highway engineering course in first quarter of the junior year.