A Study on Blended Instruction in
Computer-Aided Drafting for Secondary Education
Daryl Gene Pieta
Department of Educational Technology University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A. [email protected]
Abstract: Blended learning is increasingly being used within K-12 environments to deliver instruction. Some research suggests digital natives are efficient multitaskers who work collaboratively. For this study, blending online learning within a face-to-face computer-aided drafting course was offered as a “warming up period” for high school students. This approach provided students the opportunity to acquire online skills with greater learning flexibility to study its effect.
Introduction
In 2020, when Baby Boomers have retired from the workplace, the United States will face an urgent need for more engineers and technical workers. One way to solve that problem is to institute a new pre-engineering course of study in schools (Blais, 2007). As technology in engineering progresses, some colleges are completely phasing out manual drafting. Computer-aided drafting (CAD) is the tool of choice for producing engineered drawings (Geist, 2004).
With the shift from manual drafting to CAD, a new approach in delivering CAD
instruction will be welcomed by students as well as by instructors (Hutchinson, 2002). Numerous digital skills are required in learning and applying CAD technology within a drafting studio and workplace. Mastering skills such as Microsoft Windows operating system, internet navigation, file management, word processing and email correspondence are essential to support a CAD operator. Moreover, students entering into college will be expected to have many of these basic computer and online skills to be successful, yet many are neither technologically fluent nor information literate. Digital skills that students ought to possess should be identified to prepare students for university-level work (Stone et al., 2006). Many of these skills have been identified and integrated into this module.
Some studies have shown that blended learning is an innovative form of education which merge student interactions from live class sessions with online education for greater learning flexibility (Abrams & Haefner, 2002). Student flexibility and learning outcomes can be improved in some courses as well (Dziuban, Hartman, & Moskal, 2004).
This study takes place in a rural public Hawaii high school within a geographic area that contains a widely diverse population with an overall socioeconomic status below state averages. Twenty nine percent of families with children in this school are living in poverty (Hawaii State Department of Education, 2007) and the majority of students in this study do not have internet access at home. This digital divide may beg the question whether it is safe to assume that all students are digital natives.
This research module provides a blended learning environment for students to acquire basic CAD and related online computer skills to produce a simple drawing and to study its effect. It uses pre/post skill test sets to assess the development of student confidence in targeted skills.
Review of Relevant Literature
Education and the practice of architecture and design have been transformed by technology. The integration of CAD technologies with educational technology is a progressive strategy that can enhance the learning experience. Blended learning is a newer form of education which combines personal interactions from live classroom with online education for greater learning flexibility (Abrams & Haefner, as cited by Bender & Vredevoogd, 2006). Additionally, when combined within a drafting and design studio environment, “the result is a more streamlined course that enhances student learning, provides targeted instruction to individual students, serves a larger group of students than a traditional studio, and does not increase faculty workload”(p. 114).
Furthermore, in the paper, Online Learning: Social Interaction and the Creation of a Sense of Community (Bender & Vredevoogd, 2006), three protocols are suggested that can be embedded into the framework of online courses in order to create a sense of community and for a productive social interaction to occur. They are: (1) the greater use of synchronous communication facilities (in addition to, rather than instead of,
asynchronous ones); (2) the deliberate design and inclusion of a “forming” stage, or “warm-up” period, incorporated as an essential component into the course structure; and (3) a much greater emphasis on the provision of (and adherence to) guidelines for
successful online communication. Bender and Vredevoogd put forth the concept that, by creating an online sense of “self” the members of an online course can alleviate feelings of isolation and create an online community that assists the learning process (McInnerney & Roberts, 2004).
The target audience for this instructional design project is the “Y Generation” or “Millennials,” i.e., the last generation of people born in the twentieth century, between 1981 and 2000. For the most part, this generation has never experienced life without a computer. Many are efficient and effective multitaskers whom have known nothing but technology. Most are eager to use technology and question the status quo routinely. Sometimes viewed as needing lots of structure, this group is built on the mentoring
and practices must be willing to change in order to face complicated barriers for
technology integration. “In order to integrate technology into the curricula as the high – tech teachers have done, the very nature of their practices would have to change” (Honey & Moeller, 1990, p.13).
Epperson (2007), an architect AutoCAD instructor of the Department of Human Ecology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, advocates the coalescence of education technology, face-to-face instruction and current CAD releases. He summarizes:
As a university instructor of CAD, I find the 4D Technologies learning video to be a valuable method for assisting me to stay current with new AutoCAD releases as they are issued. More important, however, is the combination of this system with traditional teaching methods. By blending the live instructor presentation and textbook study/problem approach with the videos, the classroom instruction is enhanced by reinforcement, through the videos, of material addressed in the live
lectures. The student then has the opportunity to access on their computer, relevant topics at their own pace at a time and place convenient to their own study or work schedule (Epperson, 2007).
Accordingly, this literature review supports the numerous benefits of integrating
technology and blended instruction in the computer-aided drafting classroom , however, further study in a high school setting is warranted.
Study Overview
This module had two primary objectives: to blend technologies to facilitate an increase in student confidence in targeted skills by using Moodle (Hawaii DOE's E-School course management system)to offergreater learning flexibility, and to learn basic AutoCAD skills to create a simple drawing.
The Moodle site provided students with access to online assignments, forums,
e-journals, email, e-quizzes, and e-resources. The site also included links to video tutorials:
Learning to Use Moodle (Cole, 2009) and AutoCAD 2008 Basic - Series I tutorials (CADeeze, 2008).
The instructor provided face-to-face instruction using an LCD projector to present streaming CADeeze tutorial videos of AutoCAD 2008 and Hawaii DOE's E-School
Learning to Use Moodle (Spring, 2009) and to demonstrate the use of AutoCAD LT 2007. The instructor paused videos at key points to check student understanding and allow students to work in collaboration and practice target skills. Afterwards, the
Methodology
This new start up Drafting Technology 1 course originally had six students but was left with only four students between the ages of 16 and 17 to participate in this project. The reason for this is because one student was suspended and the other student failed to return the parental permission for a minor to participate in research consent form. The four participating students completed preliminary anonymous skill self-assessment pre-tests designed to identify: (1) personal knowledge of online learning;(2) strengths and
weaknesses in using Moodle (Hawaii DOE's E-School course management system); and (3) necessary drawing commands to create a simple AutoCAD drawing. The pre-tests asked 22 Moodle skill questions and 27 AutoCAD skill questions that indicated each student’s level of confidence in their ability to perform target skills on a scale of 1 to 3: 1=No Confidence, 2=Some Confidence, 3=Total Confidence.
At the completion of the learning module, the same students retook the identical anonymous skill self-assessment tests to determine if student’s overall level of confidence increased. Although the same number of students in the study took the pre/post tests, the tests results were not individually matched to determine individual performance, and only collected and assessed as a group. On one hand, the choice not to match pre and post tests may be considered a limitation, but on the other hand, the overall variance in skill levels is useful information and has appropriate value for the purpose of this study. This module used the workshop model where students collaborate with each other and work on projects together.
All participants had no identifying information. The survey results were tabulated in each column scale using Microsoft Excel and the results presented in the form of graphs. Each graph (pre and post test) was compared and contrasted to provide numbers to indicate any change in confidence level in described skills. The research took place at a Hawaii high school classroom, starting February 10 and completed February 20, 2009. Results
The overall, average student confidence and comfort level increased approximately 81% with the Moodle skill set and 35% with Auto CAD (Figure 1 and 2, respectively) from the time they took the pre-test to the conclusion of the module. This project initially planned seven instructional days but the AutoCAD module was cut short by two days due to scheduling problems. The average post-test confidence score for the Moodle skills module was higher than the AutoCAD module. A possible reason for this is that perhaps student comfort level in learning Moodle skills was easier than learning AutoCAD skills, which requires more time to master because of the complexity of the program.
Two notable student responses within the Moodle module, I can be successful at an E-School course using Moodle and I can use Hawaii Department’s eSchool Moodle in a
the skill set. Perhaps student experience with today’s popular social networks, such as MySpace and Facebook, gave them familiarity with similar skills including the use of chat, email and sending attachments, all features that were incorporated into the Moodle course.
A notable response with the AutoCAD skills confidence rating was with Define
Drawings Lines question, rating the highest confidence level, which is no surprise since it is the basic drawing command and easy to do (Figure 4).
What was not assessed was student satisfaction of the module. However, field
observations indicated students were absorbed with the streaming videos and instructor interaction with them. Field observations indicated that students were engaged when the instructor used the video player pause function at key points to check for student
understanding. This method seemed more effective than conventional lecturing where students are expected to be attentive for long intervals with little breaks for collaboration, assimilation, and reflection. Moreover, classroom behavior problems seemed to improve, leaving the instructor feeling less exhausted from the demands of lecturing in a K-12 environment.
One student said that he liked the voice of Jim on the AutoCAD tutorial videos from CADeeze. Jim is an expert CAD operator with over 15 years experience and has a "knack" for simplifying concepts for new users. Perhaps this is one of the gold nuggets discovered with in this study, i.e., the ability to stream videos from experts in the given content area.
It has been many years since the instructor of this module completed CAD training from a community college drafting program. Since then, there have been numerous new releases of AutoCAD and some of the instructor’s CAD skills have not been mastered in these new versions. Yet, with Jim’s extensive CAD industry and teaching experience, the instructor was able to supplement his few years of CAD experience with Jim’s expertise and thus offer the students, as well as the instructor, the benefit of a master teacher such as Jim.
The field observations revealed that the students seemed to prefer getting content through streaming videos than through lecturing. When lecturing, the instructor could barely hold complete class attention more than 10 minutes before a few students began to interrupt the presentations causing the instructor to go into a classroom management mode rather than a presentation mode. Alternatively, with videos, a one way communication format, students were not able to provoke and disrupt the instructor in the video by asking off- topic questions or not paying attention. Furthermore, most of the students who
participated in this study were visual learners and preferred a visual presentation over audio. As a result, students were more engaged and tend to stay more on task. As a result, the blended learning environment was a successful median for this study.
Figure 1. Moodle Skills Results. Figure 2. AutoCAD Skills Results.
Figure 3. Moodle Skills sample questions. Figure 4. AutoCAD Skills sample questions. Conclusion and Discussion
Regardless of the shortened AutoCAD module, this study found that students felt confident that they could be successful in a blended online AutoCAD course. This finding suggested that a sense of an online self had occurred in spite of only limited instructional time. This correlates with cited research, Online Learning: Social
Interaction and the Creation of a Sense of Community (Bender & Vredevoogd, 2006) in such “the deliberate design and inclusion of a “forming” stage, or “warm-up” period, incorporated as an essential component into the course structure.” Moreover, both CAD and online skills were attained in a collaborative learning environment, supporting Murphy and Epperson’s research that students enjoy and thrive when working in a team and that the integration of digital media enhances learning by allowing students to learn at a pace that is comfortable on an individual level.
One significant drawback of this study was the limited number of students who
participated. To draw broad conclusions on a small sample is premature. Future studies may offer a variety of assessments to address possible literacy differentiations and other learning style considerations. Perhaps using the Survey Monkey website, a revised study could offer a multitude of options to analyze the data as well as the inclusion of an area for students to add comments. Likewise, if the students were given another week to sharpen new skills, a CAD performance assessment could be included as an additional way to evaluate the effect of the module.
This study suggested that integrating educational, online technology within the face-to-face classroom enhances the learning experience for the students. As a result, there is an increase in student motivation and confidence when learning AutoCAD skills as well as gaining other abilities, perhaps as a byproduct of the instructional design. The increased levels of student confidence found in this study supports the research of Epperson and Murphy as well.
Based on the results of this study, blended instruction is strongly recommended as a way to enhance student learning for today’s classroom. By understanding the processes of blending media, teachers with minimal expertise can supplement their lesson plan content by using professionally created media related to their content area and/or creating their own instructional media.
However, in the face of available technologies, the instructor of this module has observed many classrooms that still use archaic instructional methods that are ineffective in
meeting the needs today’s digital savvy students and classrooms. This may be due to many factors, such as lack of technology funding in schools, lack of professional
development opportunities for teachers, lack of time, or even the possible lack of interest by some. Nevertheless, this observation is not only supported by results of this study, but by the literature Teacher’s beliefs and technology integration: Different values, different understandings (Honey & Moeller, 1990).
As a final observation, the instructor of this module was so impressed with the results of integrating digital media in this module that he began to use digital media as a way to supplement lesson plans in other content areas as well.
References
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