THE EFFECT OF LASER CUTTING HEURISTIC PRESENTATION MODALITY ON DESIGN LEARNING

Abstract

The goal of this work is to study the way student designers use heuristics to effectively design for laser-cut manufacturing methods. With the recent advent of academic makerspaces, digital fabrication tools like laser cutters are a relatively new addition to the classroom. Therefore, there is a gap in formal education or training on these tools, and students can find it challenging to design effectively for them. A study was performed to investigate the way students apply heuristics to redesign laser cut assemblies when received in different modalities. All participants were given an identical lecture on laser cutter heuristics. Then, a redesign problem was presented, and three experimental groups were given the heuristics in different modalities: Text-Only, text with Visual aids, and text with Tactile aids. The novelty and quality of each of the resulting redesigns was evaluated. It was hypothesized that participants would have more difficulty interpreting and applying the Text-Only heuristics, lowering the quality of redesigned solutions relative to the other two conditions. It was also hypothesized that participants would experience fixation caused by interacting with tactile aids, leading to lower novelty of their redesigned solutions relative to the other two conditions. Results showed that modality played a significant role in participants' feelings of self-efficacy after the intervention, as well as in their understanding of laser cutter design skills when responding to quiz-style questions. However, analysis of novelty and quality showed no significant impact of the intervention and varying modalities on participants' designs.