Enhancing Spatial Understanding for Interdisciplinary Tasks

This work deals with the enhancement of spatial understanding for interdisciplinary tasks in mechanical engineering through a learning software that uses virtual reality (VR) technology. Especially when analysing technical drawings, spatial understanding is an important skill that a student needs to understand the part or assembly. A virtual laboratory is being developed to acquire the skills that are treated in engineering design education. To address the competencies, the didactic concept of constructive alignment is implemented. Two evaluations were made to show the change of the initial situation to the current situation where the students learn with the developed software. In this software, the students are able to tackle some assignments. It is shown that the virtual environment helps to enhance spatial understanding and improves comprehension of technical drawings. Moreover, the competency-based assignments help to acquire the formulated skills with less effort. Last but not least, it is difficult to find a compromise between a technical (skill-based) or playful (game-elements) frame to address competencies in order to raise motivation, because the perception of the educational game differs a lot among the students.