Hybrid Learning Environment for Virtual Product Development

Togeth­er with Nord­hausen Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences, TU Ilme­nau is devel­op­ing a hybrid learn­ing envi­ron­ment for train­ing stu­dents in a key indus­tri­al field: vir­tu­al prod­uct devel­op­ment. In the future, all Thuringian uni­ver­si­ties are to ben­e­fit from the results of the project, which is being fund­ed as a pilot project.

As the term implies, prod­uct devel­op­ment means the devel­op­ment of prod­ucts from require­ments to man­u­fac­tur­ing and usage matu­ri­ty. For the goods of all indus­tries, whether auto­mo­tive, cloth­ing, con­struc­tion or elec­tri­cal and elec­tron­ic devices and equip­ment, the required prod­ucts must first be devel­oped. In doing so, they must meet today’s high­ly com­plex require­ments and demand a cor­re­spond­ing­ly sophis­ti­cat­ed devel­op­ment process. Mod­ern indus­tri­al prod­uct devel­op­ment is char­ac­ter­ized by an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary dove­tail­ing of var­i­ous spe­cial­ist dis­ci­plines, from prod­uct devel­op­ment and design to qual­i­ty assur­ance and pro­duc­tion plan­ning, accom­pa­nied by increas­ing digitalization.

The deci­sive cor­ner­stone for inno­v­a­tive, com­pet­i­tive and holis­tic prod­uct spec­i­fi­ca­tion is mod­ern 3D CAD sys­tems for the design of vir­tu­al three-dimen­sion­al prod­uct mod­els and their link­age with diverse soft­ware tools, task-spe­cif­ic oper­a­tor inter­faces and data sys­tems for the man­age­ment of, for exam­ple, releas­es or ver­sions of the design mod­els cre­at­ed. This enables com­plete and end-to-end vir­tu­al prod­uct devel­op­ment right across com­pa­ny boundaries.

Just as Vir­tu­al Prod­uct Devel­op­ment (VPE) is a key indus­tri­al field, the sub­ject of the same name is also an impor­tant com­po­nent of prac­tice-ori­ent­ed engi­neer­ing stud­ies and is reflect­ed in the cur­ric­u­la of var­i­ous tech­ni­cal dis­ci­plines such as elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing, mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing and com­put­er sci­ence and their com­bi­na­tions. At the same time, mod­ern devel­op­ment also con­stant­ly neces­si­tates new teach­ing and learn­ing for­mats as well as asso­ci­at­ed envi­ron­ments for aca­d­e­m­ic train­ing. Espe­cial­ly in the tech­ni­cal dis­ci­plines, uni­ver­si­ties are chal­lenged to devel­op and use mod­ern teach­ing and learn­ing meth­ods that enable object-ori­ent­ed, i.e. prac­ti­cal work on con­crete appli­ca­tions, and teach­ing and learn­ing that is best adapt­ed to the learn­ing progress of the indi­vid­ual students.

The trend is increas­ing­ly mov­ing away from con­ven­tion­al face-to-face teach­ing, in which the lec­tur­er deliv­ers a lec­ture in front of the stu­dents in a ple­nary ses­sion, towards a com­bi­na­tion of dig­i­tal teach­ing mate­ri­als for self-study, online learn­ing and in-depth face-to-face teach­ing that meets the needs of the stu­dents, in short: hybrid forms of teach­ing and learn­ing. With the pilot project “Devel­op­ment of a Hybrid Teach­ing and Learn­ing Envi­ron­ment for Vir­tu­al Prod­uct Devel­op­ment”, the sci­en­tists at the TU Ilme­nau led by Prof. Stephan Husung, Head of the Depart­ment of Prod­uct and Sys­tem Devel­op­ment, and their part­ners at the Nord­hausen Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences led by Prof. Folk­er Flüggen from the Depart­ment of Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing, Design and Man­u­fac­tur­ing Tech­nol­o­gy want to meet today’s new require­ments for tar­get­ed train­ing in the field of VPE.

The new learn­ing envi­ron­ment devel­oped by the part­ners is to com­prise a coor­di­nat­ed, mod­u­lar­ly struc­tured and didac­ti­cal­ly pre­pared mul­ti­me­dia mate­r­i­al for project-based learn­ing up to pos­si­bil­i­ties of the con­stant own exam­i­na­tion of the acquired abil­i­ties by the stu­dents them­selves. The goal is to use the actu­al class­room ses­sions more for dis­cus­sions, con­crete appli­ca­tions using exam­ples, or clar­i­fi­ca­tion of open ques­tions. Clas­si­cal read­ing aloud then does not take place, or only to a very lim­it­ed extent. To this end, stu­dents must have already worked through the mate­ri­als pro­vid­ed on the basis of estab­lished 3D CAD sys­tems, such as videos, sim­u­la­tions of prod­uct mod­els and inter­ac­tive ani­ma­tions, in self-study pri­or to the event and car­ried out self-eval­u­a­tions on their learn­ing progress. This teach­ing method, which com­bines hybrid teach­ing and learn­ing for­mats with an exten­sion of tra­di­tion­al activ­i­ties inside and out­side the lec­ture hall, has now estab­lished itself as a mod­ern train­ing con­cept under the name “invert­ed classroom.”

“Impor­tant to the con­cept is the need-based alter­na­tion between self-study, work in stu­dent groups and con­sul­ta­tions with lec­tur­ers. Added val­ue results above all in learn­ing progress, since dur­ing the semes­ter stu­dents’ com­pe­ten­cies are built up in a tar­get­ed man­ner in line with their needs. This hap­pens through the active involve­ment and stim­u­la­tion of stu­dents through tar­get­ed ques­tions and tech­ni­cal dis­cus­sions and, in the con­text of engi­neer­ing, espe­cial­ly in the oppor­tu­ni­ty to dis­cuss more about prac­ti­cal applications.”

- Prof. Stephan Husung

The pilot project is fund­ed for one year with per­son­nel and mate­r­i­al resources by the eTeach Net­work Thuringia. The eTeach net­work pro­motes inno­v­a­tive impulse projects that dig­i­tal­ly enrich and advance teach­ing and learn­ing at Thuringian uni­ver­si­ties. This also involves the imple­men­ta­tion of inno­v­a­tive dig­i­tal tools that con­tribute to the didac­tic enrich­ment of teach­ing and learn­ing in the real and the vir­tu­al. After suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of the project, the new learn­ing envi­ron­ment will ini­tial­ly be imple­ment­ed in Ilme­nau and Nord­hausen for the bach­e­lor’s and mas­ter’s degree pro­grams in mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing. At the same time, the pilot project rep­re­sents the start­ing point for adap­ta­tion to oth­er cours­es of study and uni­ver­si­ties, in order to enrich the teach­ing and learn­ing offer with mod­ern forms here as well.