A Generic e-Tutor for Graphical Problems

Authors: B.W. Field

Abstract:

For a variety of safety and economic reasons, engineering undergraduates in Australia have experienced diminishing access to the real hardware that is typically the embodiment of their theoretical studies. This trend will delay the development of practical competence, decrease the ability to model and design, and suppress motivation. The author has attempted to address this concern by creating a software tool that contains both photographic images of real machinery, and sets of graphical modeling 'tools'. Academics from a range of disciplines can use the software to set tutorial tasks, and incorporate feedback comments for a range of student responses. An evaluation of the software demonstrated that students who had solved modeling problems with the aid of the electronic tutor performed significantly better in formal examinations with similar problems. The 2-D graphical diagnostic routines in the Tutor have the potential to be used in a wider range of problem-solving tasks.

Keywords: CAL, graphics, modeling, structural distillation, tutoring.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1078983

References:

[1] A.E. Samuel and J.G. Weir, Introduction to Engineering Design. Oxford: Butterworth Hinemann, 1999.
[2] A.E. Samuel and J.G. Weir, "The acquisition of wisdom in engineering design," Instructional Science, vol 20, pp. 419-442, 1991.
[3] E.S. Ferguson, Engineering and the mind-s eye. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1992.
[4] G. Rosenweig, Using Director 8. USA, QUE, 2000.
[5] N. Scott and B. Stone, "A flexible web-based tutorial system for engineering, maths and science subjects", Global Journal of Engineering Education, vol 2, no 1, pp 7-16, 1998.
[6] B.W. Field, C.R. Burvill and J.G. Weir, "Student misconceptions in engineering design", Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering Design ÔÇÿ01 (ICED-01), Glasgow, 2001, vol 1, pp 253-260.
[7] L. Murch and B. Woolfe, The engineering drawing tutor, University of Massachusetts, http://althea.cs.umass.edu/ckc/34spacialreason.html.
[8] T. Juan, A. Pearce, and L. Sterling, "ROADMAP: Extending the Gaia methodology for complex open systems", Proc First International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS2002), Bologna, 2002, pp.3-10.
[9] A. Baylor, "Agent-based learning environments for investigating teaching and learning", Journal of Educational Computing Research, vol. 26, no.3, pp. 249-270, 2002.