In this paper, an innovative educational approach to introducing undergraduates to both digital signal processing (DSP) and field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based design in a one-semester course and laboratory is described. While both DSP and FPGA-based courses are currently present in different curricula, this integrated approach reduces the number of electives students would have to take and at the same time provides a hands-on DSP experience. Developing such a new course with no textbook available is challenging. Therefore, the educational materials developed, the software tool evaluations, and topics to be covered in lectures and laboratories are described. Detailed evaluations of the selection of appropriate software and hardware platforms, topics to cover, and student feedback are provided. (Contains 7 figures and 4 tables.)