Enhanced Teaching and Learning of Civil Engineering Drafting Using Multimedia Tools

Project Title

Enhanced Teaching and Learning of Civil Engineering Drafting Using Multimedia Tools

Project Leader

Prof J S Kuang & Thomas W C Hu

School / Dept

SENG / CIVL

Project Duration

Feb 2004 - Jan 2006

Project Description

In this project, a set of multimedia interactive tools were developed to help students visualize 3D drawing examples and the teaching approach included screen capture movies with narration and on-screen tips to explain software operations, enabling students to view them at their own pace, with appropriate assessment methods. The course content was re-examined and rewritten so that the CAD tools could be applied to other civil engineering courses. This promoted knowledge transfer from the drawing class to other areas. The project made it possible to have self-taught, online CAD courses for students.

Project Outcome

• A series of 3D animation videos were produced for various civil engineering structures such as footings, columns and beams to supplement traditional 2D teaching materials. In similar drawing classes offered elsewhere, these important yet complicated types of structures are seldom presented in 3D, not to mention the use of dynamic illustration as done here at HKUST.

• A collection of screen capture movies were also produced to supplement traditional teaching material on most of the CAD commands covered in this course.

•  The course structure has also been re-designed to optimize the incorporation of the technological developments. The civil engineering construction knowledge is imparted first, with the aid of animation videos. Only after the students gain familiarity with the concrete structures will they start to learn how to draw, as students must clearly understand what they are drawing before trying to master the use of CAD programs. Then, during the teaching of CAD, the use of screen capture videos successfully removed the problem of having to “progress at the pace of the slowest student”. As compared to the old approach, which was to cover AutoCAD first, then structural details, the new sequence should be more beneficial to students.

• A student questionnaire was also given to assess the effectiveness of the aforementioned courseware developed, at the end of Fall 2005. The results were positive.

Status

Completed

Project Documents
(Only accessible by HKUST users)

• Project Plan
• Progress Report: First | Second | Third |
• Final Report

Adaptation

Full Project