USE OF A CONCEPTUAL AND VISUAL GLOSSARY AS A LEARNING TOOL FOR TECHNICAL DRAWING AND COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN COURSES

In the Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Design and Product Development Engineering at Jaume I University (UJI) in Castellón (Spain) there are four coordinated courses related to Technical Drawing and Computer Aided Design. During the first year of the degree, the two one-semester courses of Technical Drawing and Graphics I & II, have the aim of providing the ability to understand orthographical systems, and sketching engineering technical drawings. In the second year of the degree, the Computer-Aided Design (CAD) I course is aimed at developing the abilities needed to draw with CAD applications and to improve skills and capabilities of students for engineering technical drawings, using mainly the 2D drawing module of a CAD commercial software package. Finally, in the third year, the aim of the CAD II course is to improve those same abilities and skills but using 3D modelling (virtual models of products in 3D).

Over the years, the experience of teachers of these coordinated courses have shown that some terms and concepts of engineering usually needed for technical drawings are not completely understood and therefore assimilated by students, being this a barrier for the following courses.

In order to improve the learning experience of students, a conceptual and visual glossary has been designed as a supportive tool for practical sessions and exams. This glossary contains the terms related to each of the four courses which have been considered the most relevant by teachers. A total of 10 cards (one per term) have been completed till now, including information such as a picture, the definition of the term and the standard designation. In addition, they also contain graphic information about standard representation, and photorealistic images, allowing the complete comprehension of each of the terms by the students. Examples of these terms are concepts related to different types of holes (cylindrical blind hole, cylindrical through hole, threaded blind hole, threaded through hole, counterbore and countersink) and some features of parts (slot, rib, keyway/keyseat and round and chamfer edges). Once the first version of the glossary was designed, a practical experience was developed, in which the students used this glossary during the two courses that are developed during the same semester (Technical Drawing and Graphics II and CAD II) while performing some practical sessions and midterm exams. After this, a questionnaire was designed with the aim of knowing the perception of students regarding the usefulness of the glossary.

The appropriateness of the use of conceptual and visual glossary is shown as a learning tool to improve the comprehension of key terms at courses related to Technical Drawing and Computer Aided Design. On the other hand, the study helped us to know whether the information supplied was enough or it is worthy to extend the number of terms.