TY - GEN
T1 - Assessment of the pilot implementation of a game-based gear design laboratory
AU - Chang, Yizhe
AU - Aziz, El Sayed
AU - Esche, Sven K.
AU - Chassapis, Constantin
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Taking advantage of game technology for offering truly immersive and interactive learning experiences to undergraduate engineering and science students has now become a real possibility. An immersive interactive virtual laboratory environment has been created for the laboratory component of a junior-level undergraduate mechanical engineering course on mechanisms and machine dynamics. For instance, a laboratory system implemented using a multi-player computer game engine provides the students with the flexibility to perform various experiments related to the concepts of the fundamental law of gearing and to the planetary motion of gears. Assessment tools such as pre- and post-experiment tests are an integral part of this game-based laboratory environment and form the basis for providing different levels of support to the students at every step of the laboratory exercise. Furthermore, the game environment can be equipped with functionality for monitoring the students' progress and learning outcomes, thus enabling skill-based assessment. This paper will report on the learning assessment conducted as part of a pilot implementation of this gear design laboratory. The evaluation metrics for the virtual laboratory environment as well as the collected data on learning effectiveness will be presented and the general student feedback will be discussed.
AB - Taking advantage of game technology for offering truly immersive and interactive learning experiences to undergraduate engineering and science students has now become a real possibility. An immersive interactive virtual laboratory environment has been created for the laboratory component of a junior-level undergraduate mechanical engineering course on mechanisms and machine dynamics. For instance, a laboratory system implemented using a multi-player computer game engine provides the students with the flexibility to perform various experiments related to the concepts of the fundamental law of gearing and to the planetary motion of gears. Assessment tools such as pre- and post-experiment tests are an integral part of this game-based laboratory environment and form the basis for providing different levels of support to the students at every step of the laboratory exercise. Furthermore, the game environment can be equipped with functionality for monitoring the students' progress and learning outcomes, thus enabling skill-based assessment. This paper will report on the learning assessment conducted as part of a pilot implementation of this gear design laboratory. The evaluation metrics for the virtual laboratory environment as well as the collected data on learning effectiveness will be presented and the general student feedback will be discussed.
KW - Assessment
KW - Game engine
KW - Game-based laboratory
KW - Gear design
KW - Virtual experiment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84863275902&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84863275902&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/FIE.2011.6143031
DO - 10.1109/FIE.2011.6143031
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84863275902
SN - 9781612844671
T3 - Proceedings - Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE
BT - 41st Annual Frontiers in Education Conference
T2 - 41st Annual Frontiers in Education Conference: Celebrating 41 Years of Monumental Innovations from Around the World, FIE 2011
Y2 - 12 October 2011 through 15 November 2011
ER -