Session: IMECE Undergraduate Research and Design Exposition

Paper Number: 116325

116325 - Development of Interactive Teaching Material for Engineering Education 

Teacher’s clarity is the most important factor in student learning. In addition to teaching approach, teaching material is an important support for clear presentation of complicated engineering topics. Smart classrooms with multimedia support are very helpful to cover complicated engineering topics in less period, because rather than drawing a complicated graphical illustration or writing lengthy mathematical expressions on blackboard, the same can be displayed in a PowerPoint presentation. Nevertheless, the illustrations are generally available in image format (from textbook publishers as instructor resources). Therefore, the entire image is displayed with a single click. Despite being time effective, this approach is not useful from student’s learning point of view, because the essences of developing the concept from scratch is lost. In general, with this method, the student cannot get that level of understanding if the same illustration was drawn on a black/white board gradually with corresponding explanations. The use of a black/white board is still an important support for the engineering education. Nonetheless, the approach is time-consuming, and the graphical illustration cannot always be well produced by hand drawings. PowerPoint provides a wide range of graphical tools that can be used to develop the complicated graphical illustrations as a combination of simple drawing objects and animation tools. The main advantage is that, rather than displaying the entire illustration at once as an image, it is developed from scratch by using animation tools in a stepwise manner. The other advantages include use of multi-colors for an improved visuals and better understanding of a complicated graphical illustration or concept. Sharing PowerPoint slides with student’s provide them the interactive support material for revision and self-study. Moreover, the PowerPoint can readily be converted into screencast without need of any additional technology requirements. Screencasts are very helpful in implementing flipped classrooms. Nonetheless, two-dimensional illustration cannot provide a clear understanding of three-dimensional configurations and motion simulations. This issue can be addressed by interactive three-dimensional illustrations and carefully planned motion animations. This is an important requirement for both time effective teaching and in-depth learning experience for the students. The illustrations are however not readily available and must be developed by the instructor. Development of interactive illustrations and animations requires considerable time and efforts in addition to knowledge of the software to be used for the development of such material. This work presents the interactive illustrations for enhanced learning experience for mechanical engineering courses at Texas A&M University Texarkana.

Presenting Author: Dustin Higby Texas A&M University Texarkana

Presenting Author Biography: Dustin Higby is a current senior at Texas A&M Texarkana College of Business, Engineering and Technology majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Before that he obtained an Associates degree in Biology with honors from Texarkana College. On campus Dustin is involved in the Honors program and ASME club. Dustin often finds himself tutoring other students and mentoring others in professional engagement. Professionally Dustin was a Set-up designer and one-off part manufacturer for a CNC and manual machine shop. Since beginning his collegiate venture Dustin is now a Co-Op Engineer for Domtar paper company. In this role Dustin has exceeded expectations and expects to find himself filling the role as a Project Engineer upon graduation, hopes to fill a needed role as a Systems Optimization Engineer for Domtar mills around the country. After graduation from Texas A&M Dustin intends on pursuing a Master’s degree in Systems Engineering with an emphasis in Engineering Management. In my spare time Dustin may find himself staying busy by home remodeling, building a race truck, or chasing his son around the house. What he is most passionate about is hunting and fishing on public land and claims the best medicine is miles away from civilization on foot battling wills with your quarry of choice.

Authors:

Sulaman Pashah Texas A&M University Texarkana
Dustin Higby Texas A&M University Texarkana