Design of Web-Based Interactive 3D Concept Maps: A Preliminary Study for an Engineering Drawing Course.

Violante, Maria Grazia; Vezzetti, Enrico

Concept map are not a new phenomenon in engineering education and are nowadays used to enhance "meaningful learning." In literature a lot of works on the use of the concept maps in education exist, but not many within the "interactive" context. This study contributes to expand the framework of research on the development of web-based 3D interactive concept maps. They incorporate web-based 3D interactive images that support the learning of abstract and difficult topics in Engineering drawing course, motivating the students and increasing their attention. The effects of different learning strategies (2D concept mapping vs. web-based 3D interactive concept mapping) on the learning outcomes and on the spatial ability are investigated. The results of this study shows that Web-based 3D interactive concept maps compensates spatial ability deficits, that is, helps students who have low spatial ability to build an effective mental representation of the learning content.

CONCEPT mapping; WEB-based user interfaces; ENGINEERING education; ENGINEERING drawings; SPATIAL ability

Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 2015, Vol 23, Issue 3, p403

1061-3773

Academic Journal

10.1002/cae.21610