MACHINE DRAWING: TROUBLES and OPPORTUNITIES in MANAGING LABORATORY ACTIVITIES in AN ONLINE CLASSROOM

ABSTRACT

Since Learning Management Systems (LMS) appeared some 20 years ago, their experimentation grew slowly, compared with the explosion that occurred after the Covid-19 emergency. Due to the closure of schools and universities worldwide, every educational institution and their teachers had to move towards the usage of LMSs for Online Distance Learning (ODL). This obliged the teachers to quickly familiarize with such kind of didactics and every kind of course faced these new opportunities. Machine Drawing is a course that requires much interaction between teachers and students and may not exploit validly many modalities invented in LMS. This paper presents the experiences done implementing online didactics, trying to apply all the online tools to the traditional way of teaching. Mainly laboratory activities, made online, must reproduce the interaction made in-person. Nevertheless, online connections opened new ways to try stricter relationships between the teacher and those students, who have less skill, even shyness, and then may accumulate delays. Differentiating the way in which didactics (lecture and laboratory) may be delivered, some traditional techniques have been improved. Employment the video recording of all activities done has given students the opportunity to repeat the more delicate steps of some topics. The check online of designs and elaborations by instructors allows students to be more concentrated on explanation, which may be done collectively or singularly. Comparing the results of exams before and after online didactics revealed that the number of students that passed the exam and the average of reached grade grew significantly. © PDE 2021.