| Abstract: | Purpose of the Research. The investigation sought to determine: if the case materials were an acceptable method of design instruction through the stated opinions of students and instructional staff. The research also sought to determine the level of understanding of the major objectivies [sic] of the presentations by the students. The study was: conducted in the Department of Engineering Design Graphics at Texas A&M University during the fall semester, 1970. The research population consisted of 889 students enrolled in the first course of; engineering graphics and twelve cooperating instructors who presented; the instructional materials. Procedure of the Research. The instructional materials consisted of seven design units that were presented over a ten week span of the semester to guide the students through their team design activities. Photographic slides were used as the visual medium to present the case examples that were used to relate to the students the characteristics of approaches to problem solution that have been used in the arrival at conclusions in technical design projects. A survey method was used to obtain data from which an evaluation of the hypotheses could be performed. A questionnaire-quiz was developed to accompany each of the unit presentations except unit number one which was to serve as an introduction to design. Each instrument consisted of attitude statements to which the students responded by indicating their opinions through the use of a five-point progressive rating scale. The response possibilities ranged from a low of one, indicating complete disagreement with the statement, to a high of five which indicated total agreement with the statement. A response of three on the scale indicated neutrality. These instruments also included a multiple-choice informational quiz. These instruments were administered to the students at the conclusion of the instructional presentations to determine an immediate response from the student population concerning their attitudes about the unit materials and their understanding of the unit information. The results from these student responses were summarized in the form of means and standard deviations to determine the representative ratings on the questionnaire items and the dispersion about these mean responses. ... |
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