Abstract:

Among the competences to be achieved by students in the area of Mechanical Engineering are those related to the analysis and design of mechanisms. For which it is essential to understand the behaviour of basic mechanisms. Beyond the mathematical relationships that determine the functionality of mechanisms, students need to have a qualitative understanding of the relationship between the different constituent parameters of these mechanisms, as well as being able to predict the movements that each of the elements of the mechanism will have during its operation. However, experience shows that students have great difficulty in visualising the actual movement of even the simplest mechanisms. The most common resources available in textbooks or used in the classroom are mainly static. For this reason, in 2006, professors from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) created Mecapedia (http://www.mecapedia.uji.es/), a public encyclopaedia on Mechanical Engineering based on the use of learning objects or discrete learning elements in digital format, self-contained and reusable for different training programmes. The animations of the mechanisms available on this website were made with Adobe Flash technology, which no longer works in the main browsers.

Therefore, the main objective of this work is the creation of a series of interactive and parametric animations/simulations, with web technologies to be incorporated into the UJI’s Mecapedia. Thus allowing them to be used as tools in the teaching of different courses in the area of Mechanical Engineering. The interactivity of these animations should allow their use from touch screen devices (mobile phones, tablets, etc.) and as they are included in the UJI's Mecapedia, these animations will be available at all times both to UJI students and to anyone from anywhere in the world interested in the field of mechanisms.

In terms of methodology, the most appropriate mechanisms to be developed from a pedagogical point of view were selected. In parallel, the most appropriate web technologies (html, css, javascript and typescript) were chosen. Then, typescript libraries were developed to facilitate the development of new simulations with the same format. After generating the animations, these were inserted in Mecapedia accompanied by explanatory texts. The result of this work is a set of interactive materials including mechanisms with draggable elements and some of them containing parameters that can be modified by the user, that can also be used in tactile devices.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the use of these technologies increases motivation, curiosity and creativity in students in early stages of their training in the field of Mechanical Engineering. It also facilitates the autonomous work of students by providing them with a simple tool to use both for its easy access (it would be enough with a smartphone) and its possibility of interaction (in a tactile way in devices with screens with such technology).

Keywords:

Mechanism simulation, Web technologies, Open educational resources.