A computer assisted engineering laboratory programme: a pilot scheme in fluid mechanics

Laws, EM

Abstract

The project was concerned with the development of a set of computer based presentations
giving the bakground, relevant theory and operating instructions for laboratory exercises
in Fluid Mechanics in the School of Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering, (now
Aeronautical, Civil and Mechanical Engineering).
A number of presentations were generated, (with embedded sound), each tailored to a
particular experiment undertaken by level 0, 1 and 2 students in Fluid Mechanics. The
intention was to enable students to be able to work at their own pace and to maximise
their use of laboratory time. Using the materials prepared each group of students was able
to start at the same time rather then in the conventional laboratory session where some
groups have to wait until the lecturer can explain to them what to do.
In the initial pilot the package used for the presentation material was ASTOUND 5.
Though the pilot was broadly successful a number of problems were encountered which
restricted the usefulness of the materials. In particular difficulty with achieving good
sound quality was experienced and also difficulties with ensuring that the equations
involved in the theory were compatible with the presentation text were found. Also after
much work had been completed in ASTOUND a run-time error which occasionally
caused presentations to halt and the package to lock-up was experienced. The cause of
this error was never fully discovered.
In the pilot material provision was made to enable students to loop backwards and
forwards, using button bars within the presentations so that they could re-play
particularly complex slides if they wished. Experience showed that students found this
facility confusing and in subsequent developments this feature was removed.
For the current academic year the material has been converted into Powerpoint and the
button bar feature has been removed so that the presentations run straight through. It is
however possible for students to halt the presentations at any stage whilst they clarify any
points of uncertainty and then re-start when they are ready. The acquisition of Sound
Forge has enabled the sound quality to be improved and the acquisition of Mathtype (the
full equation editor) has enabled the difficulty encountered with the equations to be
resolved easily.
Conclusions
Whilst preparation of the material has been time consuming and a steep IT learning curve
was necessary the end results are considered to be of significant benefit to students
studying Fluid Mechanics. Students do appreciate that they have the opportunity to replay
the presentations and some return in their own time to do so. Students who for legitimate
reasons miss a laboratory session have the opportunity to recover this easily. A greater
degree of ‘quality control’ can be exercised since each student experiences the same
introduction.
Future Developments
Whilst sound quality has been improved the embedded sound files are large so that an
entire presentation may take up some 40MB of disk space which sometimes be a
problem. Newer versions of Powerpoint (Powerpoint 2001) will play .MP3 files which
typically take up only about 10% of the size of the corresponding .WAV file. A move to
Powerpoint 2001 will be considered when appropriate.
If the recording of sound and conversion to .MP3 format proves successful it would
enable full lectures to be presented and recorded in the same way.

Citation

Laws, E. A computer assisted engineering laboratory programme: a pilot scheme in fluid mechanics

• Report Type: Project Report
• Deposit Date: Jun 17, 2009
• Additional Information: Funders : Teaching and Learning Quality Improvement Scheme