scholarly journals Gaming and Interactive Visualization for Education: A Multi-Disciplinary and Multi-University Collaborative Project

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunjun Xu ◽  
Charles Miekas ◽  
Zahed Siddique ◽  
Chen Ling ◽  
Sagar Chowdhury ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Situated Learning ◽  
Evaluation System ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Interactive Visualization ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Collaborative Project ◽  
Module Design

Most people are more perceptive to the geometric rather than the symbolic representation of information. In engineering disciplines, visualization combined with game characteristics can provide an essential mode to facilitate students’ understanding of important and abstract concepts, and improve students’ willingness to learn. In this project, game characteristics are introduced into course module design, but different from commercially available games in that the level of the contents and assessment tools in this project are meaningful to teachers, students, and parents. This paper focuses on the design of the Gaming and Interactive Visualization for Education system. Specifically, some initial design results from the three universities for three different courses plus the development of evaluation system will be presented. The system is expected to (1) offer interactions with gaming scenarios that can excite emotions, (2) provide an engaging learning experience of understanding engineering concepts by allowing students to visualize and interact with 3-D objects in a game scenario, (3) employ situated learning by exposing students to the type of challenges they will face in industry, and (4) fit better with the learning styles of the majority of engineering students.

Gaming and Interactive Visualization Education Module to Help Understand Geometric Tolerancing

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahed Siddique ◽  
Chen Ling ◽  
Piyamas Saengsuri ◽  
Sagar Chowdhury ◽  
Yunjun Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Evaluation System ◽  
Interactive Visualization ◽  
Visual Presentation ◽  
Flight Mechanics ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Geometric Tolerancing ◽  
Operational Rule ◽  
Module Development ◽  
Future Work

In engineering disciplines, visualization can provide an essential mode to facilitate student understanding of important and abstract concepts. Learning through a medium that combines course materials with game characteristics can be a powerful tool for education. This approach is expected to improve student willingness to learn, which will in turn increase the interests of high school and undergraduate students towards engineering as a future career. In this paper, three teaching modules based on the Gaming and Interactive Visualization for Education (GIVE) in three universities will be described in detail with enhanced game characteristics. Also, using the newly developed assessment tools, the evaluation data from the students who have experienced the GIVE system will be analyzed. More specifically, the three modules are designed and illustrated in this paper for the Flight Mechanics, Introduction to Electrical Engineering, and Design and Manufacturing. The following game characteristics have been considered and implemented in the modules: progressively balanced goal, feedback, time sensitive scoring, adaptive scoring, meaningful visual presentation, emotional involvement, avoiding guess, constitutive rule, operational rule, background, challenges, and rewards. Along with the course module development and implementation, the outcomes have been assessed using our evaluation system. The results have been analyzed and suggestions have been given for future work.

Getting Hands-On Experience From Simple Experiments and Model Development in Thermal-Fluid Courses

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianchang Li ◽  
Jiang Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Mechanics ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Model Development ◽  
System Model ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Physical Problems ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Major Loss

When the engineering students transition from their sophomore to junior year, they start experiencing a large number of abstract concepts each semester. For most of students who do not have much experience in engineering, it is difficult to link these new concepts to physical problems, and the formulas associated with the new concepts make little or no sense to them. To help students get more experience, hands-on experiments can be effective. This paper first describes several simple experiments that can be demonstrated in classroom and conducted at home. Fluid Mechanics was chosen as a trial course in this study. The experiments are designed to cover the important aspects of Fluid Mechanics such as the minor/major loss of a pipe flow, the drag of an immersed object, and the application of linear momentum equations. The second approach to enhance the learning experience is to make a physical model. For both fluid mechanics and thermodynamics, an open-ended course project was assigned to the students, and the project required the students to develop a system model and complete the analysis. The outcome was evaluated through the student feedback as well as coursework, and the results indicate that this practice can help the students understand the concepts better and sustain their interest in the topics.

Teaching Database Courses to Engineering Students

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abe Zeid
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Teaching Approach ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
Hands On ◽  
New Perspective

The teaching of databases to engineering students at the undergraduate level has proven challenging for multiple reasons. First, the course is a nontraditional engineering course. Second, the concepts of databases are highly abstract. Third, engineering students prefer the problem-solving, hands-on, and project-based method of learning over the coverage of database design concepts. Fourth, there is a lack of engineering-oriented database textbooks. This paper presents an effective teaching approach that overcomes these challenges. The approach mixes and integrates the database abstract concepts with hands-on and capstone-based learning activities. The approach incorporates engineering students' feedback during the course. The paper discusses the database course objectives, content, project requirements, the skill set students learn, the software tools they use, and assessment tools. Sample projects and students' comments are included. The paper concludes with some observations that can be useful to use in traditional engineering courses to provide a new perspective of teaching in engineering.

Student Anticipations and Reactions to Hybrid Format Education

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah M. Ginsberg
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Learning Styles ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Traditional Classroom ◽  
Traditional Learning ◽  
Online Platform ◽  
Hybrid Format

Abstract This qualitative study examined student perceptions regarding a hybrid classroom format in which part of their learning took place in a traditional classroom and part of their learning occurred in an online platform. Pre-course and post-course anonymous essays suggest that students may be open to learning in this context; however, they have specific concerns as well. Students raised issues regarding faculty communication patterns, learning styles, and the value of clear connections between online and traditional learning experiences. Student concerns and feedback need to be addressed through the course design and by the instructor in order for them to have a positive learning experience in a hybrid format course.

CAD Platform Independent Software for Automatic Grading of Technical Drawings

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanchit Ingale ◽  
Anirudh Srinivasan ◽  
Diana Bairaktarova
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Spatial Reasoning ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Spatial Visualization ◽  
First Year ◽  
Spatial Skills ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Pedagogical Tool ◽  
Students Success ◽  
Mechanical Objects

Spatial visualization is the ability of an individual to imagine an object mentally and understand its spatial orientation. There have been multiple works proving that spatial visualization skills can be improved with an appropriate training. Such training warrant a critical place in the undergraduate engineering curricula in many engineering schools as spatial skills are considered vital for students’ success in the technical and design fields [1–4]. Enhanced spatial skills help not only professionals in the engineering field but also everyone in the 21st century environment. Drawing sectional views requires mental manipulation and visual thinking. To enhance students spatial reasoning, one of the authors of this study, conducted a class in spatial visualization. The course-learning goal aimed at improving first-year engineering students’ spatial reasoning through instruction on freehand drawings of sectional view. During the semester, two teaching assistants had to grade more than 500 assignments that consisted of sectional views of mechanical objects. This was a tedious and a time consuming task. Motivated by this experience, this paper proposes a software aiming at automating grading of students’ sectional view drawings. The proposed software will also give live feedback to students while they are working on the drawings. This interactive tool aims to 1) improve the learning experience of first year students, with limited CAD knowledge, and 2) introduce a pedagogical tool that can enhance spatial visualization training.

scholarly journals Enculturating a Community of Action (CoA): A qualitative study of health professions educators' perspectives on teaching with Wikipedia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo C Martin ◽  
Lauren Maggio ◽  
Heather Murray ◽  
John M Willinsky
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Situated Learning ◽  
Health Professions ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Pedagogical Tool ◽  
Collaborative Project ◽  
Information Tools ◽  
Collective Experience ◽  
Based Medicine

Purpose: There is a growing desire for health professions educators to engage learners in more meaningful instruction. Many have tapped Wikipedia to offer an applied approach to engage learners, particularly as it relates to evidence-based medicine (EBM). However, little is known about the benefits and challenges of using Wikipedia as a pedagogical tool from the collective experience of educators who have sought to improve their instructional practice with it. This study aims to uncover and synthesize the perspectives of health professions education (HPE) instructors who have incorporated Wikipedia in their HPE courses. Methods: Applying a constructivist approach, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 participating HPE instructors who had substantively integrated Wikipedia into their curriculum. Participants were interviewed about their experiences of integrating Wikipedia editing into their courses. Thematic analysis was conducted on resulting transcripts. Results: Authors observed two broad themes among participants' expressed benefits of teaching with Wikipedia: 1) provides a meaningful instructional alternative that also benefits society and develops learners' information literacy and EBM skills, and 2) supports learners' careers and professional identity formation. Identified challenges included: 1) high effort and time, 2) issues with sourcing references, and 3) challenging interactions with skeptics, editors, and students. Discussion: Findings build on known benefits, such as providing a real-world collaborative project that contextualizes students' learning experiences. They also echo known challenges, such as the resource-intensive nature of teaching with Wikipedia. At the same time, findings extend the current literature by revealing a potential opportunity to approach crowd-sourced information tools, like Wikipedia, as a vehicle to engage and enculturate HPE students within a situated learning context. These findings present implications for HPE programs considering implementing Wikipedia and faculty development needed to help instructors harness crowd-sourced information tools' pedagogical opportunities as well as anticipate their challenges.

scholarly journals Tongue Twister, Students’ Pronunciation Ability, and Learning Styles

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Fatchul Mu’in ◽  
Rosyi Amrina ◽  
Rizky Amelia
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Learning Style ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Reflective Learning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
First Year ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
English Major ◽  
Tongue Twister ◽  
Teaching Pronunciation

In EFL context, considering appropriate technique in teaching pronunciation is a pivotal issue since it could help students to learn how to pronounce English sounds easy. This study aimed to investigate the effect of tongue twister technique on pronunciation ability of students across different learning styles. This study involved 34 first-year English major students taking Intensive English course at Universitas Lambung Mangkurat, one of leading universities in Indonesia. The students in the experimental group were taught by using tongue twister, while those in the control group were taught by using repetition technique. The students were also grouped based on two types of learning styles, namely active and reflective learning styles referring to Felder and Silverman’s (1988) learning style model. The findings of the study showed that there was no significant difference in pronunciation ability between the groups. No significant difference was either found in pronunciation ability between students with active learning style and those with reflective learning style. In spite of the insignificant results, tongue twister is considered beneficial by the students as they perceived that practicing tongue twisters cultivated joyful learning and it helped them to improve their pronunciation, fluency, and motivation in learning English pronunciation. Tongue twister practice could complement the use of repetition technique to enhance students’ learning experience and learning outcome.

scholarly journals Transformative Learning Experience for Incoming Freshmen Engineering Students Through Robotics Research

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baha Jassemnejad ◽  
Wei Pee ◽  
Kevin Rada ◽  
Montell Wright ◽  
Kaitlin Foran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Incoming Freshmen
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