Designing and Evaluating Virtual Reality Applications for a Machine Design Course

Abstract Machine design is an iterative decision-making process that requires students to select and assemble machine elements to create a device that performs a desired task. A machine designer must possess knowledge of basic physical sciences and familiarity with machine components such as shafts, pulleys, and bearings; creativity also plays a very important role. Machine (or Mechanical) Design is a required course in most undergraduate mechanical engineering programs to help students gain these complex skills. The large size of Machine Design courses and fixed classroom spaces make it logistically challenging to provide hands-on experiences for all students. It is commonplace, therefore, to teach machine design without physical machines, instead relying on images, 2D videos, and computer-assisted design (CAD) models to demonstrate the functionality of different components. While having students work in CAD is an important step in deepening their abilities with machine design, it puts students who lack familiarity with machine components at a disadvantage. Additionally, an important requirement for a successful design is to have a sense of dimension and how elements of different sizes can potentially work together. Without experiences where students can perceive actual sizes, it can be difficult to develop a sense of dimensional scale which can lead to misconceptions and the development of unrealistic designs. Innovative technologies such as virtual reality (VR) offer potential solutions to the persistent challenge of learning about machine design without physically interacting with the machine components. A VR system can also provide information and insight beyond what a physical model allows. VR can enlarge small scale items or slow down fast mechanisms to allow the user to better interact and understand the device. At the same time, these technologies can vary significantly in terms of realism, time to create, learner experience, and impact on learning. It is especially important in working with these technologies that learning experience is prioritized and studied. In this paper, we delineate the pedagogical requisites and learning objectives of a Machine Design course. We focus on the potentialities and constraints of current educational methodologies that employ images, CAD programs, and 2D video. Subsequently, we describe an innovative approach to develop VR applications undertaken in Spring 2023, where an engineering capstone group of senior students worked under the guidance of an instructor and a pedagogy expert to create a dedicated VR application for a Machine Design course. Furthermore, we present the evaluation of the influence of Virtual Reality (VR) on student learning outcomes during the Fall 2023 iteration of the course, utilizing a pre-post design with a quantitative approach. Our study also explores the correlation between students' previous exposure to innovative technologies and their self-efficacy in employing virtual reality within the context of the Machine Design course. This research showcases an innovative method of fostering student-led development of VR applications, rooted in sound pedagogical principles. By empowering students to create VR applications for their peers, we address a significant challenge in VR-based teaching: the development of customized applications and games.