Design and Evaluation of a Collaborative Learning System for 3D Model Sharing

Abstract

Due to the prevalence of 3D printers, many applications of 3D printing have been developed for education in the recent years. Although there are web sites hosting 3D models created by students and allowing them to be shared with others, these systems usually lack educational functions, especially for collaborative learning. On the other hand, most learning management systems do not provide functions needed for sharing and viewing 3D models. In this chapter, a system called 3D model co-learning space (3D MCLS), dedicated to collaborative learning, will be reported. The system allows a user to store, share, display, and discuss 3D models and allows a teacher to manage a group of students in a flexible way. Furthermore, the system can create the thumbnail of a 3D model automatically. It uses tags to organize models into groups according to their attributes or teams in a class. In addition, it provides blind assignments of peer reviews. The authors have implemented such a system and conducted a pilot study to obtain a preliminary evaluation on the usability of the system.