Design and evaluation of an audio-visual animated technical drawing application as a teaching and learning tool: a case of the civil and building engineering department of Kyambogo university

Abstract

The work processes analysis of the Bachelor of Civil and Building Engineering (BEng) program established that the Engineering Drawing (ED) course content is much to be covered in one semester. This was a major gap in the teaching and learning of the ED course unit. Consequently, the stakeholders ' Future Workshop (FW) revealed that aud io-visual animated ED tutorials that can enable learning to take place outside the lecture room would solve the identified gap. The purpose of this Action Research study therefore, was to design an Audio-Visual Animated Technical Drawing (AVA TED) application, and to evaluate the app lication's success and challenges when used for improving teaching and learning of ED for better learning outcomes. The conceptual framework was based on e-learning and the integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the teach ing and learning process. Fifteen students were selected for the study using stratified sampling technique, and purposive sampling was used to select two administrators, two lecturers, a computer lab technician, and two alumni from the world of work. Data were collected with aid of; focus group discussion, interviews, observations, and stakeholders in a Future Workshop. Results indicated that the A VA TED intervention was able to improve participants' frequency of practicing ED which in turn improved quality of their drawings. Including more content. developing a separate application for smart phones, supplying the application on CDs, including more control buttons, and blending the use of A VA TED with traditional teaching methods were suggested by the participants during evaluation as a way forward for the application. Findings of the study showed that 95% of participants scored above 70% in Engineering Drawing exercises after the intervention compared to I 0% before the intervention. Key words: Engineering Drawing, ICTs, £-Learning, and Animated Tutorials