Implementation of interactive and collaborative computer-assisted learning in automotive engineering education.

Alic, Carmen Inge ; Miklos, Imre Zsolt ; Miklos, Cristina Carmen 等

1. INTRODUCTION

Integration of Information Technology in the applied educational activities of automotive engineering domain offers an excellent opportunity to improve the understanding level achieved by students. The complexity of many current systems in automotive engineering has been growing exponentially. We can say that, generally, the Romanian higher education in this domain didn't keep the pace with these needs. Therefore, the existing undergraduate and graduate automotive engineering programs should implement and use advanced concepts and educational methods, and incorporate more material on engineering educational software. An approach for using computers to enhance the education effectiveness in automotive engineering in our faculty involved the use of educational software, computer interactive desktop applications, computer-based simulations and Java Applets, etc. in the virtual laboratory modules and experiments. In addition, this approach was motivated by the fact that the concepts taught in automotive engineering courses are often difficult to be visualized and fully grasped by the students.

2. THE CASE STUDY

Many students attending specialized courses in automotive engineering domain have problems to identify what is needed, how to decompose the problem into simpler segments and what information they need to solve the problem. For such students, the authors believe that a guided learning approach similarly to the one presented in this paper is an appropriate procedure. According to (Staab & Harpner, 2000), an effective computer-aided educational program should clarify abstract topics that are difficult to understand using traditional teaching and focus on teaching concepts rather than entertaining students with shallow special effects. As a teacher team with expertise in mechanical systems engineering field, a year ago we have proposed a project for an interdisciplinary virtual laboratory-classroom, equipped with computers network and educational software. This laboratory is currently operational in our faculty (Fig. 1) and is dedicated to our students, future engineers in automotive domain, who can use here innovative and advanced educational software solutions. In the interdisciplinary laboratory, over the winter semester of the current academic year, we developed a test program concerning the use of specific pedagogical resources in the teaching process.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

During the preparation of this test program, our team devoted considerable resources to identify the latest developments of dedicated and, if possible, also free-accessible software (see some referred applets and software resources in References), in order to update and review the packages installed on the laboratory network.

In the followings figures (Fig. 2, Fig. 3 and Fig.4) we exemplified some teaching resources and software used in our virtual laboratory-classroom for the basic and specialized automotive engineering disciplines, such as Fundamentals of Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical Vibrations, Vehicle Dynamics, Automotive Computer-Aided Engineering and Modeling.

Generally, within the mechanical engineering field, and also in the particular automotive engineering field, most of the currently existing educational software can be grouped in the following categories: tutorials, worksheets and analysis packages.

* Tutorials guide the student through a series of prepared screens, each focused on a specific concept or skill. In this manner, tutorials are like lectures delivered in a different format. In addition, in tutorials, such as in the software called MdSolid, (http://mdsolids.com), most presentations are completed with animation and/or video clip files.

* Worksheets for equation-solving software, such as Mathcad, Matlab (Wilson et all., 2002), were also developed to supplement the mechanic engineering courses. A disadvantage of the worksheets is that, in order to use them, the student should be rather familiar with the host software package. This can also be viewed as an advantage, while familiarity with the equation-solving software is a useful skill in other mechanical engineering courses.

* Analysis packages were included in several widely available textbooks (Craig, 1996; Alic & Miklos, 2008; Staab & Harper, 2000) and publications (Alic et al., 2008; Cheng, 2003). These programs are useful tools for assisting students in more specialized professions of automotive engineering field. Input for these programs has typically been very text-based, often requiring a user's manual to ensure the proper data use, and to help in interpreting the programs' output.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]

3. ANALYSIS, DISCUSSIONS, APPROACHES, INTERPRETATIONS

The basic motivation for achieving this project was to strengthen the automotive engineering curriculum at the Faculty of Engineering Hunedoara. The objectives are detailed described in the laboratory analysis report, and the final goals of our work initiative in the virtual laboratory-classroom are listed below:

1. Use hands-on and visualization tools to aid students in problem formulation and enhance learning opportunities.

2. Improve the students' critical thinking and problem solving skills by involving them in the learning process, allowing individual experimentation and providing interchangeability of tools.

3. Ensure that the developed equipment has an impact on core courses in automotive engineering programs and that the material is taught in various ways, to benefit students with various learning styles.

During the project's implementation, we found that a consistent part of the educational software is developed from the professor's viewpoint, emphasizing lecture topics or allowing the student to perform more advanced calculations. But, to be successful, educational software should be developed from the student's viewpoint, rather than forcing the student to solve a problem imposed by the software, e.g. the software should solve the problem of student's interest.

4. CONCLUSION

The use of computer potential as learning and teaching tool offers several opportunities that can be useful in engineering education and, particularly, in automotive engineering education. The most important benefit provided by educational software the interaction possibility, many studies indicating that interacting with information is a positive effect on learning, since people remember more information if they interact with it (e.g. hear, see, and do). Results of our surveys indicate that the educational activities developed in the virtual laboratory--classroom were extremely well received by the students and helpful to understand better the training material of automotive engineering curriculum, at disciplines focused on the design & manufacture of automobiles and their component parts, as well as on the components' integration into an automotive system.

This project will continue by implementing of a Course Management System--CMS--Moodle, aiming the efficient co-ordination of the didactic activity and management of its results.

5. REFERENCES

Alic, C. ; Miklos, Z. & Miklos, C. (2008). Computer-Aided Design Methods for an Optimal Conception & Exploitation Quality of the Pre-Stressed Bolted Joints, Proceedings of MMS-2008 Conference, pp.25-30, ISBN 978-80-553-0069-6, Presov, Slovakia, September 2008

Alic, C. ; Miklos, C. & Miklos, Z. (2008). Kinematics and Dynamic Analysis for EP3 asymmetric pantograph mechanism used in railway electric traction with SAM 5.0, Proceedings of International Symposium "KOD 2008", pp.181-186, ISBN 86-85211-92-1, Novi Sad, April 2008

Alic, C. & Miklos, C. (2008). Mechanics Fundaments. Theory anf Applications, 100-103 and 134-139, Ed. Mirton, ISBN 978-973-52-0478-5, Timisoara

Cheng, C. (2003). Introducing student-centred teaching strategies to improve teaching and learning in Theory of Machines and Mechanisms. Available from : http://www.science.uniserve.edu.au/pubs/ china/vol2/charles cheng.pdf, Accessed: 2008-10-10

Craig, R.R. (1996). MechSolid in Mechanics of materials, John Wiley & Sons, N.Y. ISBN 0471331767, 9780471331766, New York

Staab, G. & Harper, B. (2000). Use of Computers in Mechanics Education at Ohio State University, Available from : http://www.ijee.dit.ie/articles/Vol16-5/Ijee1154.pdf Accessed: 2009-03-17

Wilson, H. B., Turcotte, Louis H. & Halpern, D. (2002). Advanced Mathematics and Mechanics Applications Using Matlab, Chapman&Hall/CRC, ISBN 1-58488-262-X, Taylor & Francis Group. Informa Company USA

*** http://www.mekanizmalar.com/gear_draw.cgi applet source, Accessed on: 2008-10-07

*** http://www.walter-fendt.de/ph14e/applet source, Accessed on: 2008-10-07

*** http://pyvot.fr software source, Accessed on: 2009-02-12

*** http://www.mecatools.new.fr, software source Accessed: 2009-04-30

*** http://mdsolids.com, software source, Accessed: 2009-01-15