Engineering visualization and modeling: teaching ...

Engineering visualization and modeling: teaching and management using the IT approach K. S. Leea (corresponding author) and Maria L. H. Lowb Associate Professor (Instructor for Module), Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260 E-mail: [email protected] b Research Student (Tutor for Module), Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore

a

Abstract A web-based E-learning courseware for the module ME1101, Engineering Visualization and Modeling, has been developed to complement the normal lectures, practical work and tutorials at the National University of Singapore (NUS). This courseware includes the lecture notes, the solutions and worked examples in animated format, related videos to emphasize the finer details of manual drawing concepts and online quizzes to enable students to learn better. A number of information technology (IT) tools are being used in the courseware development. The Integrated Virtual Learning Environment (IVLE), developed in-house by the Centre for Instructional Technology (CIT) at NUS, has also played a large role in assisting the instructor and tutors for the module to better manage the course. The courseware developed is especially useful to students from other faculties who do not have any technical knowledge. Keywords web-based E-learning; management; information technology; learning environment

Introduction Engineering Visualization and Modeling is a vital foundation for most engineering applications in all fields, but especially in mechanical engineering. This module, ME1101, is being offered as a compulsory module to all second-year mechanical engineering students at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Students from other faculties are encouraged to take cross-faculty modules and ME1101 is one of those offered to these students. Though the intake for these cross-faculty students is capped at 50 students, the response is overwhelming and many have had to be turned down. In the academic year 2001/2002, there were cross-faculty students from the Business Administration faculty, Science faculty, Arts and Social Science faculty, School of Computing, School for Design and Environment and the Architecture faculty, who took this module as part of their cross-faculty requirement. In total, there were 435 ME1101 students in that academic year alone. With the wide circle of students from different backgrounds, there is a need to make this module as simple as possible, without removing the gist of the contents. Concurrently, there is also a need to be able to manage the large number of students in terms of their assignment submissions and quiz submissions. The ME1101 module consists mainly of two sections: International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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(1) (2)

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theory; practicals/tutorials.

The second section is further categorized into: (a) manual drawing; (b) computer-aided design (CAD) modeling. Though the module is taught only over a single semester, the syllabus has to be as comprehensive as possible, so as not to remove the basic foundations, which the students need later in their course of study. For the CAD section of the module, SolidWorks [1], a 3D CAD software program, has been selected for use in the teaching and practical sessions. SolidWorks was chosen primarily for its 3D modeling capability; it is fully Windows-native CAD software. Learning and understanding the Engineering Visualization and Modeling module were not easy in the past, when there were no or few available information technology (IT) resources to create animations and teaching aids. Live demonstrations of sketching and drawing are perhaps the best methods of teaching. This is ideal for a small class, but with 435 students this method does not work. Even within a small class, there will be students who have a slower learning capability than their peers, and so will not be able to grasp all the techniques that are being taught by the instructor. Today, the advancement in IT has brought life to the drawing paper. Something flat on a paper in the past is now a 3D model that can be rotated on the screen. Something black and dull in the past is today bright and colorful. While making full use of the Integrated Virtual Learning Environment (IVLE) provided by the Centre for Instructional Technology (CIT) for campus learning, the module instructor went on to include web-based E-learning for ME1101 practicals/tutorials on his personal homepage. Many related links to other overseas universities, which are offering similar courses, are also included on his personal homepage. This has enabled students to obtain a wide range of knowledge and drawing techniques. Many animations are created and saved as either self-executable files or in HTML format. These are shown during lectures and are also available on the web-based E-learning courseware. These animations assist the students in their visualization capabilities and also enable the instructor to explain difficult concepts. The use of IT or multimedia tools to assist the teaching of engineering subjects is no longer a new area of discussion today, as many universities have been using such IT tools to assist their teaching. Gramoll Kurt and his team have developed multimedia packages for subjects in statics and dynamics. These packages, which are commercially available, allow students to visualize the more difficult concepts in engineering education while learning at their own pace [2–4]. In the University of Minnesota, the use of multimedia has also been applied in creating the basic fluid mechanics course for engineering undergraduates. The multimedia presentation includes photographs, videos, animations and an interactive user interface [5]. A set of interactive multimedia tutorials for the course on engineering materials has also been developed by the University of Pennsylvania and is given to students in the International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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TABLE 1 No.

Software tools used in courseware development Supported file formats

Software

Company

1

Dreamweaver

Macromedia

2

Flash

Macromedia

.swf, .exe

Create animations

3

eDrawings

SolidWorks

.eDw, .eprt, .edrw, .easm, .exe, .htm

Create animations

4

Camtasia

TechSmith

.avi

Dynamic screen capture to show pointer movements and activation of programs in motion. It is capable of joining multiple AVI clips into one. It also allows the editing of video clips

5

Snagit

TechSmith

.avi

Dynamic screen capture to show pointer movements and activation of programs in motion

6

VideoMach

Gromada

.avi, .mpg, .mp3, .gif, .jpg, .tif, .wav, .png, .bmp

Convert AVI files into MPEG files. Video clips can be created from still images

7

Media Encoder Microsoft

.wma, .wmv, .asf, .avi, .wav, .mpg, .mp3, .bmp

Encode movies into streaming format for live and on-demand delivery

8

Photo House

Corel

.bmp, .gif, .jpg, .pcd, .pcx, .png, .psd, .tif, .wmf

Edit and create images

9

Photoshop

Adobe

.psd, .bmp, .gif, .eps, .jpg, .pdf, .pcx, .png, .pct, .tif, .tga

Edit and create images

.htm, .html

Uses Create web pages

form of a CD-ROM. The three-dimensional moving images allow the students to better visualize materials, and this cannot be achieved using static illustrations [6]. However, it is a challenge to select from the vast array of IT tools to develop courseware that meets the objective of the Engineering Visualization and Modeling course: to enhance the students’ learning and understanding. Tools used in the development of the courseware Vast collections of software tools were used to prepare the web pages, movie clips and animations in the development of the web-based E-learning courseware for this module. Table 1 gives a summary of the software tools used in developing the courseware. Creation of web pages Macromedia products [7], such as Macromedia Dreamweaver and Macromedia Flash, were used in the development of the courseware. Macromedia Dreamweaver International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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was used to create the web pages that provide the links to the animations, movie clips of screen captures and E-learning tutorials. Creation of animations Macromedia Flash was used to produce some of the animations for the E-learning and lecture notes. These animations can be embedded within the web pages and the client, Macromedia Flash Player, is needed to view these animations. They can also be converted directly to self-executable files so that no client is required for viewing these animations. Other animations are created with eDrawings [1], a new type of electronic drawing file that is highly compressed and comes with a built-in viewer. This is distributed together with SolidWorks. These animations are substantially smaller in size than the original SolidWorks files, thus making it easy for the students to either download them or view them over the Internet. Because they have a built-in viewer, anyone with a Windows PC can watch these animations. There is no need for the students to install additional CAD software or special viewers to see these animations. The more exciting part of eDrawings is that it automatically demonstrates how drawing views relate to each other. With the click of a button eDrawings will ‘animate’ all views contained in the drawing, thus increasing the students’ visualization skills. Although eDrawings is distributed together with SolidWorks, eDrawings is used to create animations for the lectures, the E-learning for manual drawing and the E-learning for CAD modeling. Creation of movie clips Movie clips of screen captures for the CAD modeling tutorials are created with software such as Camtasia, Snagit and VideoMach. Camtasia and Snagit are produced by TechSmith [8], and are mainly used to make communication easy. The movies are captured by dynamic screen capture that shows pointer movements and activation of programs in motion on the computer. Thus, these videos are ideal for computer-based training and distance learning. As the videos created in Camtasia and Snagit are in AVI format, VideoMach is sometimes utilized in a secondary process to convert these movies to MPEG format. VideoMach is an audio/video builder and converter produced by Gromada [9], which could also be used to construct video clips from still images. On the other hand, Microsoft® Windows MediaTM Encoder [10] is used for the encoding of movies into a streaming format suitable for publishing in the IVLE. It is a production tool that enables content developers to convert both live and prerecorded audio, video, and computer screen images to WMA (audio) files or WMV (video) files (Windows Media format) for live and on-demand delivery. The encoder software provides a simple graphical user interface and wizard, thus enabling users to easily configure and produce Windows Media-based content for both live and ondemand delivery over the Internet. Others Other image editing/graphical software, such as Corel Photo House and Adobe Photoshop, are used to create the graphics for the lecture notes and web pages. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Tools used in the management of the courseware Integrated virtual learning environment (IVLE) At the NUS, the authors have benefited from the existence of the IVLE that was developed in-house by the Centre for Instructional Technology (CIT). It is a courseware management system designed and developed by the CIT to manage and support teaching, learning and courseware management over the Internet. Aside from facilitating the organization of course materials on the web, the IVLE also provides a wide variety of tools and resources that can be added to a course. Supplementing classroom teaching of more than 2400 courses and reaching some 28 000 students, the IVLE provides tools for discussion forums, online chat, auto marked quizzes, class distribution lists, electronic mail, course FAQ builders, lesson plans, automatic index generation, staff homepages, a course calendar, subscription services, assignment repositories, templates and much more. The primary benefit of the IVLE is access to up-to-date course materials for NUS students working on campus, at home, or while traveling. The IVLE also enables instructors to expand the range of materials they can make available to students, enhance communications, save time for themselves and their assistants, and help students to better prepare for class. The IVLE is a cost-effective vehicle for doing all this, largely because of its close integration with the University’s Exchange messaging engine and its design philosophy of ensuring all tools and resources are web-based and leveraging its authentication against NUS single-user IDs and passwords. Fig. 1 shows the IVLE interface for the course outline of the ME1101 module. The course outline in the IVLE contains basic information such as the schedule, announcements, syllabus and readings for the course. IVLE – the three ‘M’s The IVLE is a useful tool for: (1) Contents Management; (2) Time Management; (3) Users Management. Listed below are some of the features in IVLE that were used extensively for the management of the ME1101 module. Announcement This is an extremely useful tool for disseminating information, instructions and announcements across a large group of students, many of whom are cross-faculty students (CFMs). These students are able to receive the information at any time and anywhere. The most attractive feature of this tool is that it also allows announcements to be sent as a short messaging service (SMS) message to the hand phones of the students who are taking the course. Thus, students do not need to log onto a PC to view the announcements. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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The IVLE interface for the online ME1101 course.

Lesson plan It is an essential tool to let students prepare for what is to be expected in the weeks to come. It allows the lecturer to list the learning resources that students will need to access for the particular lecture and tutorials. Learning resources in the form of lecture notes, animations, videos and discussion forums provide students with the basic understanding prior to attending the lectures and tutorials sessions. Fig. 2 shows the lesson plan for the module. Class workbin and group workbin The class workbin is common to all registered students. They can upload their assignment solutions and download useful documentation, such as lecture notes in PDF format, isometric and square papers, tutorial questions, animation files, additional exercises, class photographs and even a movie of their own class. As there were 14 tutorial groups for the batch of ME1101 students in academic year 2001/2002, group workbins were used to allow the students from each tutorial group to submit their CAD tutorials to their own group workbin. This allowed for better management of the tutorial submission. The group workbins also provide the tutors with the ability to ensure that all students under their charge submit their CAD tutorials punctually, since the workbin’s open and close times are preset. The files that are submitted can be accessed and checked at any time. The uploading of files into the workbin is illustrated in Fig. 3. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 2

Lesson plan for ME1101.

Multimedia Additional videos that are useful for the module are encoded into a suitable streaming format for publishing in the IVLE. Students are able to view these videos repeatedly to learn some of the drawing techniques and concepts of the module that are more difficult to understand. Discussion forum This tool is quite popular with the students, as they use it frequently to post their doubts and enquiries. Since this is the discussion forum, it is not just the instructor and tutors who do the answering. Other students who know the solutions or have any alternative suggestions are strongly encouraged to post their ideas and answers there. In this way, the discussion topic is shared among the students in the whole class and not just targeted to the one student who raised it. The authors found that the main advantage was that other students who faced similar problems would not ask the same question again, since it had been discussed over the forum. The discussion forum for the ME1101 module is shown in Fig. 4. Assessment The IVLE’s Assessment tool allows instructors to create a variety of assessments to test the students’ knowledge of the subject being taught. By creating and running International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Uploading files into the workbin.

Discussion forum for ME1101. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 5

Assessment interface for ME1101.

some assessments for the students, the instructor can gauge their level of understanding of the subject being taught. The IVLE’s Assessment tool allows for the creation of multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, true or false and short answer assessment, and the system can also mark and grade the scores. The course instructor, who is also the creator of the assessment, can get feedback on student participation and is able to know how well the students have performed in the assessment. Fig. 5 presents the Assessment interface for the module. Web-based E-learning courseware Theory (lecture notes) The topics of the module, covered over one semester, are: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Introduction Principles of Projection Sectioning and Dimensioning Interpenetration of Solids Development Convention and Symmetry Screws and Nuts Representation

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Fig. 6

Theory (lecture notes) for ME1101.

(8) Keys, Couplings and Locking Devices (9) Limits and Tolerances (10) Welding Symbols and Representations The lecture notes that are used for presentations are in Microsoft PowerPoint format but they are subsequently converted into PDF format and placed onto both the instructor’s personal webpage and the ME1101 class workbin for students to download. Fig. 6 shows the interface that links to the lecture notes on the instructor’s personal web page. Of all the topics that are taught, it has been found that three are particularly demanding, in which most students have difficulties visualizing. They are the ‘Principles of Projection’, ‘Interpenetration of Solids’ and ‘Development’. As such, the authors made use of the animation tool known as eDrawings, which is distributed together with SolidWorks. eDrawings is used very frequently because of its advantages. After a part has been modeled in SolidWorks and the drawing is produced, eDrawings can be produced almost instantaneously with a click of a button. In the eDrawings file itself, users are able to play the animation continuously or to rotate, pan and zoom the part manually to view it. These eDrawings files can be saved as a self-executable file, which contains the built-in viewer. The eDrawings can also be published as HTML files, so that students are able to directly interact with the International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 7

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Animation created by eDrawings on third angle projection (in HTML format).

model over the Internet. To enable the students to learn in their own time, the authors allowed the students to download all the animations (in the self-executable file format) from the class workbin. Fig. 7 shows one of the examples, on third angle projection, in the lecture topic for the ‘Principles of Projection’. An animation is created with eDrawings and saved in HTML format. The student is able to interact with this model by clicking on the ‘Animate’ button or to rotate the model to study it. Fig. 8 shows another animation example, on auxiliary projection. By having these animations, students are able to better understand how the projection views are obtained. In the lecture topic ‘Interpenetration of Solids’, students often found difficulties in visualizing the interpenetration curves that are created for two intersecting solids. Therefore the same method for the creation of the animations using eDrawings was utilized. Two solids are modeled in SolidWorks and given different colors to differentiate them. They are subsequently published as eDrawings. Figs 9 and 10 show two examples for this topic. By interacting directly with the model, the students are able to understand how the interpenetration curves are created. The ‘Development’ topic is perhaps the toughest of all. It involves understanding the development of surfaces, such as those found in sheet metal fabrication. The development is a flat pattern that represents the unfolded or unrolled surface of a form which gives the true size of each area. SolidWorks is once again used to International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 8

Fig. 9

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Animation created by eDrawings on auxiliary projection (in HTML format).

Animation created by eDrawings on interpenetration of a slant cylinder and a slant cone (in HTML format). International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 10 Animation created by eDrawings on interpenetration of a pyramid and a triangular prism (in HTML format).

produce the model and its flattened configuration. The drawings are produced and the eDrawings are published. Fig. 11 shows the animation for the development of a simple slant-cut cylinder, while Fig. 12 depicts the animation for the development of a transition duct. The course students are eventually able to understand the concepts well and most of them are actually very eager to learn how eDrawings are produced. This is taught to them during their CAD practical sessions. Practicals/tutorials Web-based E-learning has become extremely useful for students to study by themselves, anywhere, at any time, at their convenience prior to their tutorial sessions. There are two sections in the E-learning courseware for the practicals/tutorials, with one section dedicated to manual drawing examples and the other to CAD modeling. Manual drawing There are manual drawing tutorials to supplement what is taught to the students, as the Engineering Visualization and Modeling module is not just about using the CAD system and the PC. The manual tutorials are based on the same three topics that students find particularly demanding – ‘Principles of Projection’, ‘InterpeneInternational Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 11 Animation created by eDrawings on development of a slant-cut cylinder (in HTMLformat).

Fig. 12 Animation created by eDrawings on development of a transition duct (in HTMLformat). International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 13 Animation created by Flash on the interpenetration of a vertical cone and a slanted square prism (in HTML format).

tration of Solids’ and ‘Development’. Although there are animations developed using eDrawings, as mentioned above, these animations only show the model, the interpenetration curves and developments, but do not show how the lines and curves are constructed. Further work has to be done to illustrate the construction of the lines and curves, especially for the topics ‘Interpenetration of Solids’ and ‘Development’. Thus, the authors made use of another animation tool, Macromedia Flash, to create the animations. For the E-learning of manual drawing tutorials, many examples depicting stepby-step constructions are provided. There are also animation files that run automatically when the web page is accessed. This enables students to understand the method and visualize the technique of construction and drawing. Fig. 13 shows part of the manual drawing example for the interpenetration of a vertical cone with a slanted square prism; the animation was created with Flash. The Flash file is embedded into the web page so that the animation can be viewed over the Internet. Alternatively, students can view or download an eDrawings file of the model to study it. This is illustrated in Fig. 14. CAD modeling SolidWorks, a 3D CAD modeling program, was selected for use in the teaching of this module. A CAD tutorial class group ranges from 28 to 39 students and only one International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 14 Animation created by eDrawings on the interpenetration of a vertical cone and a slanted square prism (in HTML format).

tutor is assigned to every CAD tutorial session. The E-learning courseware for CAD modeling has ‘rescued’ the tutors from having to attend to every student during the CAD tutorial sessions. Students can go through the E-learning courseware for CAD modeling by following the step-by-step instructions. They can also view the movie clips of screen captures of the step-by-step movements before attempting the CAD tutorial questions. Fig. 15 portrays the interface for the E-learning courseware for CAD modeling. For every tutorial question, there is a start page which allows students to navigate through the main steps. This can be seen in Fig. 16 for one of the tutorial questions. In the E-learning courseware itself, step-by-steps instructions are supported by clear graphics, which is essential for students to better understand the instructions. At the end of every major step, or where new concepts and techniques of CAD modeling need to be emphasized, a short movie clip is available for viewing. This short movie clip illustrates the modeling of a portion of the part. Students are able to review these movie clips repeatedly, to assist them in either looking for a particular function in the SolidWorks software itself or to learn to perform a particular new function. Fig. 17 shows part of the step-by-step instructions in the E-learning courseware, while Fig. 18 shows the running of movie clip. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 15 Interface for E-learning for CAD Modeling of ME1101.

Fig. 16 Start page for tutorial in the E-learning for CAD Modeling of ME1101. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 17 Step-by-step instructions in the E-learning for CAD Modeling of ME1101.

The eDrawings program is again used to create the animations at the end of the each tutorial in the E-learning courseware. Fig. 19 shows the end of a tutorial in the E-learning courseware and a hyperlink is available for students to view the eDrawings for that tutorial. eDrawings enables the students to interact directly with the models, especially those which illustrate a cross-sectional view. Fig. 20 shows the eDrawings for the same tutorial as that for Fig. 17. Fig. 21 shows the cross-sectional view of the assembly part in 2D, while Fig. 22 shows the same cross-sectional view of the assembly part in 3D, during the animation of the eDrawings. Comments and feedback from students The feedback and comments from the students are very encouraging. Some of the feedback obtained from students during their evaluation of the course at the end of the semester is given here: ‘I would like to thank you for creating interesting E-learning materials for this module. My classmates and I enjoyed doing the tutorials since it is much easier to learn with these E-learning materials.’ ‘We have observed the amount of effort that you had put in to make this course interesting, especially in the E-learning tutorials. Your efforts are truly appreciated. Thank you!’ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 18 Running of a movie clip in the E-learning for CAD Modeling of ME1101.

‘The E-training for CAD is very useful; thank you for including that in this module. Do continue to include the E-learning tutorials for this module in the years to come.’ ‘The lectures are well taught and the E-learning materials are very useful and informative.’ ‘The E-training and the additional exercises allow the class to be well prepared for tutorials.’ ‘This is a very interesting module, as many multimedia presentations are incorporated into the course materials.’ ‘The lecturer incorporates multimedia in his teaching materials very well. I like his E-tutorials on CAD because they allow me to study the CAD solid modeling steps before I commence on the solid modeling on my own.’ ‘The lecturer has a very efficient teaching method. By the use of interactive course materials, he has enabled the students to understand complex concepts very well. This is indeed impressive.’ International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 19 End of a tutorial in the E-learning for CAD Modeling of ME1101.

Fig. 20 Animation created by eDrawings on the CAD tutorial (in HTML format). International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 21 Animation created by eDrawings on the CAD tutorial showing the cross-sectional view in 2D (in HTML format).

Conclusions Engineering Visualization and Modeling is a module that can appear very simple to some students but very difficult to others. Once the students have grasped the basics, it becomes much easier for them to proceed to the later part of this module. The teaching of this module becomes more complex with the admission of cross-faculty students, who do not have any technical background. Efforts were made by the authors to try to make the module as easy to learn as possible, without removing the vital areas of knowledge and technical details. The solution that the authors found is to utilize the proper IT tools to provide animations and movie clips, and to develop them in the form of web-based E-learning courseware. The developed courseware acts as a supplement to the normal lectures and practicals/tutorials. Besides the E-learning courseware, there is also a need to be able to manage the course itself. The IVLE is the ideal IT tool for this. The positive feedback and comments from the students show that the webbased E-learning courseware appeals to them and that they find it extremely useful. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the Center of Instructional Technology (CIT) for providing much support and encouragement to prove that IT indeed plays an important role in teaching and managing such a module. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 32/2

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Fig. 22 Animation created by eDrawings on the CAD tutorial showing the cross-sectional view in 3D (in HTML format).

References [1] SolidWorks Corporation, SolidWorks modeling software, http://www.solidworks.com. [2] University of Oklahoma, Engineering Media Lab, http://eml.ou.edu/. [3] National Engineering Education Delivery System (NEEDS), http://www.needs.org/engineering/features/1998/september/. [4] C. E. Hmelo, E. Y. Lunken, K. Gramoll and I. Yusuf, ‘Multimedia courseware for teaching dynamic concepts: assessment of student learning’, Proceedings – Frontiers in Education Conference, 1 (1995), 162–166. [5] V. R. Voller, S. J. Hoover and J. F. Watson, ‘The use of multimedia in developing undergraduate engineering courses’, Journal of the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society (JOM-e), 50(5) (May 1998), http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9805/Voller/Voller-9805.html. [6] C. J. McMahon, Jr, R. Weaver and S. S. Woods, ‘Multimedia tutorials for an introductory course on the science of engineering materials’, Journal of the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society (JOM-e), 50(5) (May 1998), http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9805/McMahon/ McMahon-9805.html. [7] Macromedia, Dreamweaver and Flash software, http://www.macromedia.com. [8] TechSmith, Camtasia and Snagit software, http://www.techsmith.com. [9] Gromada, VideoMach software, http://www.gromada.com/index.html. [10] Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft® Windows MediaTM Encoder software, http://www.microsoft.com.

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