A Comparison Of Engineering Graphics Courses Delivered Face To Face, On Line, Via Synchronous Distance Education, And In Hybrid Formats

With the increase of online instruction in higher education, questions arise as to whether students acquire the necessary knowledge from a given course. This paper investigates the efficacy of four modes of delivery for an engineering graphics course. The four delivery modes are traditional face-to-face instruction, synchronous distance education using audiographics technology, asynchronous online instruction, and hybrid of face-to-face with asynchronous and synchronous online instruction. In general, each section of the course was delivered by the same instructor to undergraduate engineering students in their first or second year. In order to assess the effectiveness of each delivery mode, this research considers the observations of the instructor and the commentary from the students. Also, a posttest was given to students to assess their knowledge in basic areas of engineering graphics, including projections, visualization, and dimensioning. The results of this work will compare the effectiveness of the different modes of teaching. It should also offer some insight as to the different ways students learn engineering graphics and to what extent online instruction is appropriate for an engineering graphics course.