Computer Aided Design: Learning Style Preference Effect on
- Conference
- Location
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Atlanta, Georgia
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2013
- Start Date
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June 23, 2013
- End Date
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June 26, 2013
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Computers in Education
- Page Count
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9
- Page Numbers
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23.318.1 - 23.318.9
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--19332
- Permanent URL
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https://sftp.asee.org/19332
- Download Count
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390
Paper Authors
Bobby G Crawford P.E. U.S. Military Academy
Colonel Dr. Grant Crawford is currently the director of the Mechanical Engineering Program at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. He graduated from West Point in 1985 with a bachelor of science in Mechanical Engineering. He earned a master of science in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1994 and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Kansas in 2004. He has taught courses in aeronautics, thermal-fluid systems, heat transfer, computer-aided design, and aerospace and mechanical engineering design. He is a licensed professional engineer and is a rated pilot in both rotary and fixed wing aircraft.
Lynn K Byers U.S. Military Academy
Colonel Lynn Byers is currently the director of the Design Group within the Mechanical Engineering Program at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. She graduated from West Point in 1987 with a bachelor of science in Mechanical Engineering. She earned a master of science in Aerospace Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1997 and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 2006. She has taught courses in aeronautics, dynamics, vibrations, computer-aided design, thermal-fluid systems, and aerospace and mechanical engineering design. She is a licensed professional engineer and is a rated pilot in both rotary and fixed wing aircraft.
Rebecca Zifchock United States Military Academy
Dr. Rebecca Zifchock joined the faculty at the United States Military Academy in 2010 after receiving her bachelor's degree in Biological and Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University, and master's and Ph.D. degrees in Biomechanics at the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Delaware, respectively. She also completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Hospital for Special Surgery. She has over twelve years of research experience in the field of lower-extremity biomechanics, and has eleven peer-reviewed journal publications and over 30 conference proceedings. She has taught as an instructor, adjunct professor, and guest lecturer in five major universities, including Columbia University, Sacred Heart University, and New York Medical College.
Abstract
Computer Aided Design: Learning Style Preference Effect on Student LearningAbstractIn the Computer Aided Design (CAD) course at XXXXX, students learn two different designsoftware packages, SolidWorksTM and MATLABTM. Faculty who are responsible for teachingthe course have observed a difference in performance by the students in course homeworkassignments and examinations between the two applications. In general, students performedhigher on SolidWorks assignments. This poses the question: Does learning style preferenceaffect the ability to learn different computer aided design tools?Sixty-one students enrolled in the Spring 2012 semester of Computer-Aided Design were askedto participate in this Institutional Review Board exempted study. Each student was asked totake Felder's and Soloman's “Index of Learning Styles” questionnaire. Of the four learningdimensions that are evaluated in the questionnaire, only the scores for two, Visual versus Verbaland Sequential versus Global, were examined in this study. These two dimensions seem to bemost relevant to the research question. We expected that SolidWorks was more suited tolearners who tend to be more visually and globally-oriented. Conversely, we expectedMATLAB to be more suited for more verbally and sequentially-oriented students.This paper discusses the results of our study. The raw data in the Visual/Verbal domain appearto support our hypothesis to suggest that verbal learners perform better in MATLABprogramming than in SolidWorks modeling, whereas visual learners have a less distinctdifference in performance. A survey of students also indicates that a higher percentage of verballearners prefer MATLAB compared to their visual counterparts. The low number of verballearners identified in the first group has prompted us to collect additional data in the currentsemester. This additional data will be included in the final paper. 80 Solidworks preference p = 0.01 Matlab preference 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 visual learner verbal learner Figure 3: Visual versus Verbal Learners Preference for SolidWorks or MATLAB 11 9 7 5 Sequential (-)/Global(+) Score 3 1 -11 -9 -7 -5 -3 -1 -1 1 3 5 7 9 11 -3 -5 -7 -9 -11 Visual(-)/Verbal(+) ScoreFigure 5: Correlation between Students’ Scores in the Visual/Verbal and Sequential/Global Dimensions
Crawford, B. G., & Byers, L. K., & Zifchock, R. (2013, June), Computer Aided Design: Learning Style Preference Effect on Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--19332
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