2017 7th World Engineering Education Forum (WEEF)
Visualization of 3D Support System for Civil
Engineering Students
ChengYee Ng
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS
32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia
chengyee.ng@utp.edu.my
Abstract — Visualization of the 3D system has been reported
as a common constraint for the students throughout the nation.
This has brought the authors into concern, whereby first-year
civil engineering students scored poorly in the assessment of the
subject, Engineering Mechanics, in particularly related to 3D
support reaction as compared to other topics. A simple interview
has been conducted with the students after the assessment, the
main reason given was that they were unable to visualize the
system. In contrary, unable to apply the knowledge learned. A
model-based learning workshop has been conducted, whereby
students have to work out on the activities that were linked to the
engineering applications. It was observed that the students’
capability of visualizing 3D system were slightly improved.
Keywords—visualization; 3D system; model-based learning
I. INTRODUCTION
Visualization of 3D system in sciences and engineering has
been reported to be one of the constraint of the high school
students globally. Should the problem not encountered timely,
it would further extend to higher level of study. This has been
observed by the authors in the first-year undergraduate
engineering students in the University. In order to support the
statement, authors have conducted an assessment for a group of
engineering students who attended the class of Engineering
Mechanics. In the assessment, four questions were tested that
aimed to evaluate the understanding of:
• Question 1 – Force vector on 2D system
• Question 2 – Force vector on 3D system
• Question 3 & 4 – Condition of equilibrium
In general, the assessment showed that students are able to
solve the Question 1, 3 and 4, except for Question 2. To
further understand the problem, an interview has been
performed to the selected students. From the responses of the
interview, it could be concluded that they were not able to
visualize the 3D system, especially system with complicated
components. Consequently, it has caused difficulty to
implement the learned theories to the engineering problem
evaluated.
It has been highlighted the importance of graphical
representation in the problem solving by researchers.
978-1-5386-1523-2/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
504
Kurian V. John
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS
32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia
kurian_john@utp.edu.my
Pantiziara et al., emphasized the importance of diagrams in
mathematical problem solution. In their study, the ability of
the students to solve non-routine mathematical problem with
and without presence of diagrams was investigated. The
findings showed that diagrams did provide influence in the
analysis. However, they also noticed that students were having
difficulties to use diagram efficiently. Stylianou [2]
highlighted that it is a common practice that professional
mathematician solve problems by drawing diagram. The
author has proposed to build the visual representation in steps
to analyze the problem situation. Stylianou and Dubinsky [3]
also, studied on the interplay between the visualization and
analysis in the thinking of undergraduate mathematics students
in solving problems required linear thinking. Again, they have
highlighted that visualization could be an essential tools and
sources of inspiration in problem solving. Stylianou [4]
expanded his work, to focus on the interaction between
representation e.g. drawing, diagrams, physical models etc.,
and justification i.e. how mathematical knowledge is certified
and established ass knowledge. It has proven that the
representation impacted student’s justification in the solution
and strategies. The importance of analytical and visual
reasoning in mathematics namely calculus have been, also,
highlighted by Zimmermann [5].
It could be observed that visualization is rather important in
the fundamental mathematics studies as well for engineering
applications. Noordin et al. [6-7] and Ahmad et al. [8] have
highlighted the similar problem occurred in Malaysia. They
observed that about 45% of the secondary school students in
Malaysia have the difficulties in visualizing 3D model. In the
study, they have developed a courseware that incorporated
lines, planes and van Hiele’s models to encounter the problem
found. In order to encounter the problems, Nishizawa et al. [9-
13] have proposed an active-learning plan by adopting various
strategies e.g. role-playing games, virtual games and web-
based learning activities. On the other hand, Davis [14] as well
proposed a virtual reality simulation, whereby this technology
has been used to model 3D simulation that allows students to
experience the clinical cases. She concluded that the
technology is advocated as useful and reliable tools for
teaching clinical skill and evaluating the competence of student
using the system in simulating the hospital environment.
2017 7th World Engineering Education Forum (WEEF)

From the literature survey carried out, it can be concluded A. A learning workshop on implementation of teaching aid
that the visualization is rather important in both mathematics as A learning workshop with the title “Workshop on the
well engineering applications. In order to encounter the implementation of model-based learning” was carried out for a
students' difficulties in visualizing 3D models, various group of engineering students who enrolled for the Engineering
techniques have been proposed. Among them, active learning Mechanics subject.
and multi-media are the commonly been used. In the present
study, a learning workshop for the undergraduate engineering The workshop was divided into two sessions, i.e. Session 1
students was proposed to encounter the problem namely for for introduction and Session 2 for application.
engineering students. In the workshop, students were required
• Session 1 – The Introduction
to build a structure (the model), whereby force will be exerted
on the structure. This is to imitate the loading conditions, and The flow of the workshop began with the
students to observe the reaction of the system e.g. deflection of introduction of the project and the apparatus, the
the structure, buckling of the supports etc. 3Doodler as shown in Fig. 2. This is rather important,
to ensure that the students operating the 3D plotting pen
II. METHODOLOGY correctly and safely.
This study was proposed a mixed method, where an
interview has been carried out at the beginning to investigate
the problem. Models were introduced, survey was carried out
to measure the efficiency of the models after implementation.
Necessary improvement were carried out incorporating with
the feedback from the students. Engineering mechanics is one
of the courses that offer for every semester, hence the loop of
the experiment can be repeated. At the end of the experiment,
the data was consolidated and the best practice was
summarized. Fig. 1 shows the loop of the experiment for this
study.

Problem
Planning and Fig 2 3Doodler and color strand for workshop
propose of
identification
idea
In the introductory session, students were introduced with
the components and the operation of the 3Doodle tool. To
further enhance students’ skill in the operation, they have been
given an assignment to plot the following:
i. The first alphabet of their name
Review and Execution of
improvement Proposal ii. A 3D cube
iii. A 3D tower

Measurement
iv. An animal
of
effectiveness The activities and artwork of the students are as shown in
Fig. 3.
Fig. 1 Process flow of the experiment • Session 2 – The Application
In this session, students were given an assignment to plot a

Fig. 3 Activity and artwork of Session 1

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2017 7th World Engineering Education Forum (WEEF)

3D structure with the size limitation not less than 15 cm (L) x Figure 7 illustrates the reflection after the workshop using
15 cm (W) x 15 cm (H) by using the 3Doodle. To further 3Doodler. 95% of the respondents agreed that their
challenge the students, only 3 strands were allocated for each visualization skills have been improved by using the 3D
student. In order to increase the students’ interest, authors models developed. In order to validate the responses, a
have made Session 2 of the workshop as a competition. The “reverse wording question” was embedded in the
structures were evaluated in two categories i.e. the strongest questionnaire. Still, the reflection is consider reliable as about
structure and most esthetic structure. 80% of the respondents disagreed with the reversed statement.
To assess the strongest structure, loads were applied on the
My 3D visualization skills have NOT improve after
structure. The structure that can sustained the most load was
implementation of 3D teaching aids
the winner for this category. Fig. 4 shows one of the winning
structure for the strongest structure. Meanwhile, the most 30
esthetic structure, as shown in Fig. 5, was awarded to the
20
highest vote structure voted by the students themselves.
10

Strongly Disagree Disagree Not Sure Agree Strongly Agree

Fig. 4 Reflection after workshop implementation (Validation)

Fig. 2 Winner of the Strongest Structure
Another question to study the students’ feedback on using the
3Doodles was embedded in the survey, in the interest of
expanding the practice to other subjects. Positive feedback
was responded that about 83% of the students would like to
use the learning tools in other subjects.

I want to have the 3D learning tools in other subjects

Fig. 3 Winner of the Most Esthetic Structure
In this session, it is aimed that students were able to
demonstration their creative and innovative in constructing a
3D structure. Also to apply the knowledge learned from the
lectures to build a strong structure. Students were given also a
quiz during the session, to imagine and draw out the scenario
e.g. if a person is pushing from the left side of the building,
how would the force been applied and is there any moment
incurred? They have to discuss among the teammates and each
of them were required to make a presentation to the class for
the situations applied on their models respectively. This
activity aimed to encourage the communication between the
peers and encourage the students to be able to speak in the
public.
My 3D visualization skills improve after implementation
of 3D teaching aids
30
20
10
0 Application was proposed. From the feedback of the students
Strongly Disagree Disagree Not Sure Agree Strongly Agree
Fig. 6 Reflection after workshop implementation
30
20
10
0
Strongly Disagree Disagree Not Sure Agree Strongly Agree
Fig. 5 Feedback for extension of teaching tools in other subjects
CONCLUSION
Poor performance in imagining and visualizing 3D force
system was observed by the authors in the Engineering
Mechanics course for undergraduate engineering students in
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), Malaysia. From the
literature survey performed, it was concluded that the
difficulties in visualization is not only a domestic problem,
indeed globally students are having such issue. Hence, this
study was carried out to propose a mechanism to overcome the
problem. A learning workshop which consist of two sessions
i.e. session 1 – The introduction and Session 2 – The
after the implementation of the learning tools, majority of them
agreed that their visualization skills improved. Also, their
interest to expand the usage of learning tools to other subject
have been recorded.

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2017 7th World Engineering Education Forum (WEEF)

ACKNOWLEDGMENT [7] S. Noordin and W. F. W. Ahmad, “The Development of Multimedia

Courseware of Lines and Planes in 3-Dimension: an Application of van
Hiele’s Model”, Program of the 16th Asian Technology Conference in
The author would like to express her gratitude to the Center Mathematics. Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 31750 Tronoh, Perak,
of Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETaL), UTP for Malaysia.
[8] W. F. W. Ahmad and H. B. Zaman, Integration of Multimedia in
awarding the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Visualising Geometric Transformations for Mathematics Education: A
(SoTL:0152AA-A09) research grant for this study. Preliminary Review, CITA’01.
[9] H. Nishizawa, T. Yoshioka, “A Proposal to Teach 3D Vector Operations
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