Design Improvement And Analysis On 3 D Haptic Augmented Learning Tools For Dynamics Course

The paper presents the recent improvement and analysis of 3D haptic-augmented learning tools for Dynamics course, which is a fundamental course offered in most engineering disciplines. Dynamics is considered to be one of the most difficult and non-intuitive courses that engineering students encounter during their undergraduate study. Haptics, the research and application on the sense of touch and force feedback, provides a novel human computer interface for students to interact with virtual dynamics world to potentially gain a better understanding of the dynamics concepts. Under this assumption, this research started with the identification of key dynamics concepts from engineering teaching experience and converted these concepts into interesting interactive animation with both graphics and haptics learning channels. The developed learning tools have been tested with 99 undergraduate engineering students in Spring 2008, Summer 2008 and Spring 2009 semesters. The positive effect of the novel learning tools is confirmed with the statistical analysis of the experimental result. The analysis result also provides great input to future improvement and dissemination of the novel teaching methods on dynamics concepts.