study on implementation of tablet computers in

DOI 10.2478/cplbu-2014-0029

The 6th Balkan Region Conference on Engineering and Business Education & The 5th International Conference on Engineering and Business Education & The 4th International Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Sibiu, Romania, October, 18th – 21st, 2012

STUDY ON IMPLEMENTATION OF TABLET COMPUTERS IN ENGINEERING DESIGN COURSES Daniela, Pusca1 and Hoda, Eiliat2

1 University of Windsor, [email protected] 2 University of Windsor, [email protected]

ABSTRACT: Rapid development and employment of modern technologies has changed humankind life style drastically. Education has always been an essential human virtue and a necessity for society. The question of how to engage technological tools in order to expand teaching benefits and increase learning capacity is on the rise. This paper is intended to contribute in assessing usage of stylus and tablet in place of traditional pencil and paper in design oriented engineering courses offered to undergraduate engineering students. The paper presents suggestions for how to use the tablet computers to deliver course material along with results of student surveys on how tablets are being used in class, their usefulness and effectiveness. Keywords: tablet computers, design courses, engineering, effectiveness

1. INTRODUCTION The development of ways to facilitate a deep understanding of course content, based on the course outline and specific principles designed for the offered course (curriculum), the teaching approach to train a set of technical, professional and even communicational skills (instructions) and evaluation of the success rate and measuring the depth of understandings on different concepts (assessment), is the goal of every instructor. This is called “effective learning experience” [1]. The challenge for instructors in engineering design courses is to engage students in this experience and encourage them to be active and independent learners. The present paper and other related studies [2] show that replacing pencil and paper for drafting applications with the computer tablets and stylus, appears to be a successful method in teaching and learning design related courses. In regard with the students’ learning, it is a reality that an effective CAD package speeds their ability to produce a useful drawing within a few hours of practice, but what is being lost is the ability to make useful freehand sketches. Different studies have shown that students who are not exposed to hand-drawn sketching do not gain maximum visualization skills. For this reason, freehand sketching was considered a very important module in the activities associated with engineering design. As the technology part us from traditional sketching tools (pencil and paper), one can still find ways to attract the students to nurture their creativity with hand drawn sketching. One of the alternatives is to use stylus and tablets, as presented in this study.

other word the type of curriculum, method of instruction, and form of assessment are critical [3]. Each element of the triad is being explained based on the approach designed for engineering design courses at University of Windsor:

Figure 1. The Curriculum-Instruction-Assessment (CIA) triad model.

2. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN C-I-A TRIAD AND ENGINEERING DESIGN COURSES

Curriculum: The knowledge and skills that the instructor uses and the students grasp is called curriculum [3]. The learning outcome of these courses was to prepare students to tackle design oriented problems. Some of the key points of the curriculum were expansion of engineering graphics to include statistical tolerance design and geometric dimensioning, schematics for standard components, design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA) and reverse engineering.

The Curriculum-Instruction-Assessment triad as shown in figure 1 is used as a core model for understanding how effective the knowledge is transferred from the instructor to the student. The answer to “How People Learn” can be different base on how each part of the triad is being conceptualized in

Instruction: Is referred to the methods of teaching as well as learning activities that are used to help students to develop their understanding of the course content and the curriculum objectives [3]. The instructions were transferred to the students by the instructor and teaching assistants. In addition to tutorial

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sessions, lab sessions were added to give more time to students in order to practice what they were taught. Assessment: The outcome of the education and students achievement is measured by variable assessment methods [3]. In this course, bi-weekly progress tests helped the instructor to gauge student’s weakness and strengths. Traditional formal midterm and final exams were also used. These tests along with assigned course projects prepared the students to demonstrate their level of critical thinking and problem solving skills. Being part of a team and working on real challenges of engineering design process, communication skills were also practiced among team members.

4. IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY DEVICE: COMPUTER TABLET Hand sketching is an essential part of an engineering design courses. A variety of engineering design softwares is available for engineers and designers in the market and instructors try their best to familiarize their students with as much as software packages as possible. However, as mentioned before, maximum visualization skills can only be gained by free hand sketching. Figure 3 shows some of the software used in engineering design courses at University of Windsor.

In all these three areas mentioned in the C-I-A triad the use of the computer tablet was analyzed and implemented.

3. DESIGN PROCESS INVOLVED WITH THE ENGINEERING DESIGN COURSES Problem-based teaching and project-based teaching techniques were used as inductive teaching methods. Employment of effective problem solving algorithm [4] (figure 2), helped with addressing all aspects of a design engineering course such as making students familiar with design concepts in real world, design restraints in engineering profession, learning to integrate various scientific and mathematical roles and applying them correctly to overcome a problem and solve design issues. Since directed project-based learning approach was introduced and practiced during lectures, students were encouraged to brainstorm different solutions for the specific design problem and communicate the outcome using graphical communication techniques on a computer tablet using the stylus. This model assists the students to demonstrate and master research skills, problem definition methods, critical thinking and problem solving techniques, interpersonal and communication skills and team work and creativity. Following the engineering design process and focusing on learning, the active role of the students in the class, the importance of acquisition, application and integration of different parts of science, make this model compatible and aligned with CEAB criteria.

Figure 3. Design and sketch tools. Tablets are effective devices because of their mobility and convenience. In this study, Lenovo Think Pad Tablets with 2 Dual-Core 1GHz processors and Android™ 3.1 were used [5]. A popular professional grade drawing and sketching software, SketchBook Pro was installed on the tablets. User friendliness and simplicity were the most important factors in choosing this software. Students tested the software through a self learning process with specified instructions provided by teaching assistants. An image of the software interface is illustrated in figure 4.

Figure 4. Sketch book Pro software interface [5].

Figure 2. Effective problem solving algorithm used in the engineering design process

During lab sessions, students were asked to use the tablet for their assignments. They were also instructed how to save and upload their work on university server. All the saved assignments could be easily accessed by teaching assistants and were checked and graded using the tablet and stylus. A sample of a student submitted assignment can be seen in figure 5. Students were required to use the third angle projection theory to sketch the top view of a part, the front view as an offset section view, and to dimension the part.

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• Access to a wireless network for displaying web pages and showing video from internet is required • Familiarity with all the applications that will be used during class and tutorial sessions • Familiarity with the file formats and how to transfer and access files for each application to be used • The sleep mode on the tablet must be disabled • The instructor must ensure that the classroom has either an HDMI or VGA input to projection system and any password protected sites/accounts are logged into before turning on the projector

6. CASE STUDY CONDITIONS

Figure 5. Sample of submitted assignment using the tablet. The use of the tablets eliminates the need for paper and pencil and makes it easier for the instructor and teaching assistants to keep track of the assignments, to grade and archive the submissions. This also does not compromise the initial intend to develop specific student skills such as free hand sketching and spatial visualization. Preparing the students with visual thinking skills through free hand sketching on computer tablets would speed their learning ability and develop their graphical understanding of digital modelling software. Therefore, along with learning the basic drafting and visualization skills, specific CAD packages were used during the tutorials (figure 3). As shown in this paper, in order to train students to understand and interact with up-todate virtual world of design, the free hand sketching software should also be introduced and taught to students along with other CAD software’s such as CATIA and AutoCAD.

5. PRESENTING MATERIALS USING COMPUTER TABLETS After over a year of using tablet computers in the classroom, the major teaching needs identified were presenting or working with Office documents, displaying PDFs and web pages, and drawing or annotating. The preloaded application Docs To Go [5] allowed the users to view, edit and create Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, and high-fidelity viewing of PDF files. The students and the instructor used SketchBook Pro by Autodesk [6] to sketch or annotate images. This software allows free hand sketching using either a finger or a capacitivetouch screen stylus. SketchBook also has the concept of layers, allowing users to import an image from the tablet and, on another layer, “draw” on the image. This allowed the presenter, the teaching assistants, and the students to annotate existing images or diagrams. The tablet computer proved useful for showing videos, displaying class information, documents, and other web content, including relevant articles. Finally, note-taking applications have proven useful to keep track of the issuance of assignments, discussion questions, tests, and grading.

In order to have both qualitative and quantitative aspects of an effective research study, a case study was designed and quantified by surveys. Case study [7] can be a helpful tool in the study of a new approach in a classroom however the biggest problem with the case studies is the problem of selection bias. This can affect the validity and reliability of the research. Yin in his research [8] on case study conditions, defined three conditions under which the study is considered credible: 1. 2. 3.

The research should address a “Why” or “How” question The research should not influence the student’s behaviour The focus on the research topic should be in real time

All the above conditions were satisfied during this study. Research Ethic Board of University of Windsor was also involved with this study to assess and minimize common risk factors of involvement of students in this study. A set of pre and post surveys were administered before and after the use of tablets. These surveys were anonymous and no risk, discomfort or inconvenience was associated with participation in this study.

7. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Pre and post surveys were chosen to scale students’ perspective regarding their experience with the computer tablets. Pre surveys assessed their initial level of expectation and post survey examines their final level of satisfaction. The pre surveys had two main groups of questions: one set of questions were regarding the student’s familiarity and usability of tablets. The second set was about their initial expectation regarding the course delivery and evaluation methods. In the post survey, almost same questions were asked in order to make it possible for the researchers to compare the results, a new set of questions were also added to this part that was related to communication skills and practices involved in team work projects. Figure 5 shows the comparison diagram on the results obtained before and after the use of tablets. As shown 77 percent of participants thought that it is easy to use a tablet for drafting application. An increase of 35 percent was seen on the preference of replacing a tablet over a pencil and paper. The rate of student’s willingness to learn new design software was also increased by 13 percent. These results are a good indicator that their experience with SketchBook Pro software was a success.

The instructor and the students must be familiar with the applications to be used, the file formats the apps support, how to transfer files and associate them with apps, and how to access files from applications. The basic requirements needed for the use of the tablet in the classroom consist of: Unauthenticated Download Date | 11/24/15 6:02 AM

8. CONCLUSION The survey results show the positive influence of tablets in this study and the suitability of their usage in the context of an engineering design course. Implementation of the tablets eliminates the need for paper and pencil, and makes it easier to keep track of the assignments and archive the submissions. It was proved that the tablet can also be successfully used for teaching purposes. Using this technology does not compromise the initial needed skills such as free hand sketching needed to be gained, practiced and mastered by the students during beginner engineering design courses. Based on the successful turn out of this study related to engineering design course and discussions with other faculty members, university agreed to implement tablets in more engineering courses in the following semesters.

9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Figure 6. Pre and post survey results in percentage. Students were also asked to express their experience regarding project management and communication practices. The following questions were asked:

The authors would like to mention that this study wouldn’t have been possible without the support received from the University of Windsor Centre on Learning Innovation Fund program, CLIF, for the project entitled “A strategy to Evaluate a New Teaching and Learning Experience by Employing Engineering Concepts”.

10. REFERENCES 1.

Q1: Interaction between the instructor, teaching assistant and students Q2: Helpfulness of tablets in developing drafting skills

2.

Q3: Helpfulness of feedbacks received from instructor or teaching assistants Q4: Relation between the lecture contents and project requirements

3.

Q5: Responsibility definition of each member in the team work Q6: Fairness of amount work assigned to you in the team work The results are shown in a bar diagram in figure 6. A linear scale of 1 to 4 was used to gauge the answers. (1=Poor, 2=Adequate, 3=Good, 4=Very Good).

4. 5. 6. 7.

8.

Thomas, A. Litzinger., Lisa R. Lattuca., Roger G. Hadgraft. and Wendy C.Newsetter, Engineering education and the development of expertise, Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 100, No.1, pp.123-150, (2011). Thomas, Murphy., Christopher Williams., Frank Katz., A Comparison of Tablet Computers for Use as a Class Presentation Platform, ASEE Southeast Section Conference, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA, (2012). James W. Pellegrino., Rethinking and redesigning curriculum, instruction and assessment: What contemporary research and theory suggests, National centre of education and economy, pp 1-14, (2006). David, Ullman., The mechanical design process, 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill Companies., Oregon, USA, (1997). Lenovo Inc, http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/tablet/?menuid=learn&ref-id=learn Autodesk, Inc., SketchBook Pro, https://market.android.com/details?id=com.adsk.sketchboo khd&hl=en Jennifer M.Case., Gregory Light., Emerging methodologies in engineering education research, Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 100, No.1, pp.186-210, (2011). Robert, K. Yin, Case study research: design and methods, 3rd edition, Sage publication, California, USA, (2003).

Figure 7. Obtained data on student’s experience in this design course.

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