Engineering
Building digital literacy via engineering competition
Victor Bong Nee Shin
Department of Engineering, Sarawak campus
Department of Engineering, Sarawak campus
Tiong Siing Kieh
Department of Engineering, Sarawak campus
Department of Engineering, Sarawak campus
Using Adobe Spark (now referred to as Adobe Express) and Adobe Rush, engineering students create a video and webpage to increase their confidence in selecting, learning and using appropriate technological and digital tools to achieve their desired outcomes. The learning philosophies that are embedded in this project include: constructive alignment of learning outcomes, solving real-world engineering problems, constructivist theory, and scaffolding approach.
Resources
The following resources provide instruction around a team project focused on designing and evaluating a computer-aided model in relation to an engineering problem. All of these resources are available to access or download by Swinburne staff via Commons and include the following:
• Lesson Plan
These resources are also available on the Adobe Education Exchange!
Problem
21st-century learners should be fluent in digital literacy. I noticed that the Computer Aided Engineering (Mechanical) unit could be modified to prepare students to be fluent in digital literacy. Hence, this project aims to build students' digital literacy via engineering competition.
Overview
This project aims to build students' digital literacy via engineering competition. The project involves one group assessment that consists of 4 to 5 people per group. This group assessment requires students to solve real-world engineering problems by adopting a competition organized by The James Dyson Award. The outcomes of this assessment mapped to the intended unit learning outcomes and the overall learning framework for this group assessment underwent three stages.
Stage 1: Project initiation - students go through the following activities: Relevant software installation; Design brief; Team forming; Creativity tools: Design thinking and TRIZ inventive principles.
Stage 2: Project implementation - Emphasize; Define; Ideate; Prototype; Test; Formative feedback.
Stage 3: Project presentation - Video; Webpage report.
Emergent Outcomes
This project integrated Adobe programs into the curriculum to augment the students' learning experience. Some of the critical outcomes for this group assessment included the following: Computer 3D model, video, and webpage. Students applied the unit-required software, namely SolidWorks, to generate computer 3D models and validate the design. After completing model creation and design validation, students edited and created a video with Adobe Premiere Rush. The video included the assembly model, model rotation motion, project title, design intent, project motivation, design process, differences from other similar products, and future plans. Additionally, each group generated a project webpage report via Adobe Spark (now referred to as Adobe Express). On the webpage, each student wrote a personal reflection about the digital/physical artefacts created (e.g., Observation, Interpretation, Reflection, Application) and the ethics required for future use (e.g., user of your artefact, how will they use it ethically?). The aforementioned integration of Adobe programs improved student technology literacy in selecting and applying the digital tools to achieve unit learning outcomes. Furthermore, two teams of 8 students participated in The James Dyson Award and 2021 Project of the year by DASSAULT SYSTEMES.
Digital Literacies
Technology Literacy:
Students apply SolidWorks to generate computer 3D models and validate the design via an engineering approach. Students also created a project video with Adobe Premiere Rush and created a project webpage report using Adobe Spark (now referred to as Adobe Express).
Learnings
After completing the project, we received the following feedback from students:
• The group project allowed me to explore my creativity.
• We found a better solution to solve a real-world problem.
• Students appreciated being able to choose from several pre-constructed topics of reasonable difficulty.
Instructor reflection:
• The instructors needed to scaffold the learning experience for students (Refer to the shareable lesson plan)
• Depending on the available weeks, three check-in points by the instructors for student presentations were helpful in monitoring and guiding the students' project progress.
Impact data
The following data were obtained from the student survey of the project:
1. Based on the statistic from Figures 1 to 2, students reported great improvement in their confidence and ability to learn, select and use Adobe Spark and Adobe Premiere Rush in this assessment.
2. 86.4% of the surveyed students reported this group assessment helped solve real-world engineering problems (See Figure 3).
3. Figure 4 shows the statistical significance of the studies.
Figure 1: Data representing student confidence and ability to learn, select and use Adobe Spark (now referred to as Adobe Express) in this assessment
Figure 1: Data representing student confidence and ability to learn, select and use Adobe Premiere Rush in this assessment
Figure 3: Data representing students' perceptions of this group assessment in solving real-world engineering problems
Figure 4: Statistically analysis of the surveys