Enhancing design learning using groupware

Project work is increasingly used to help engineering students integrate, apply and expand on knowledge gained from theoretical classes in their curriculum and expose students to 'real world' tasks [1]. To help facilitate this process, the department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management at the University of Strathclyde has developed a web±based groupware product called LauLima to help students store, share, structure and apply information when they are working in design teams. This paper describes a distributed design project class in which LauLima has been deployed in accordance with a Design Knowledge Framework that describes how design knowledge is generated and acquired in industry, suggesting modes of design teaching and learning. Alterations to the presentation, delivery and format of the class are discussed, and primarily relate to embedding a more rigorous form of project-based learning. The key educational changes introduced to the project were: the linking of information concepts to support the design process; a multidisciplinary team approach to coaching; and a distinction between formal and informal resource collections. The result was a marked improvement in student learning and ideation

Student search behaviour in a digital library

This paper covers student search behaviour in a digital library. It was presented at the eighth international conference of engineering and product design education, in Salzburg, in 2006

Using visual representations for the searching and browsing of large, complex, multimedia data sets

Industry as a whole has become increasingly global and digitized in recent years, resulting in a huge increase in data generated by companies, projects and even individuals. This has led to great challenges in visualizing and searching for information. The speed and accuracy at which these large datasets can be effectively mined for information that is relevant and valuable can have a significant effect on company performance. Therefore, this research investigates the feasibility of using visual representations for the searching and browsing of large, complex, multimedia data sets. This paper introduces the SIZL (Searching for Information in a Zoom Landscape) system, which was developed to enable the authors to effectively test whether 2.5D environments can benefit effective data management. The usability of this visualization system was analyzed using experiments and a combination of quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. The paper presents these results and discusses potential industrial applications as well as future work that will improve the SIZL data visualization method