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A multi‐user virtual laboratory environment for gear train design

This paper presents the development of a game‐based virtual laboratory environment for gear train design. This virtual laboratory environment goes beyond static demonstrations or conventional computer simulations and provides the students with the flexibility to perform various experiments related to the fundamental law of gearing and the concepts of planetary gear motion. In this virtual laboratory environment, the students, the instructor and the teaching assistant are represented by and interact as virtual characters (avatars). The scripted scenario for the laboratory exercise was first piloted in a junior‐level course for mechanical engineering majors. Assessment tools such as pre‐ and post‐experiment tests are an integral part of the laboratory environment and form the basis for providing different levels of support to the students at every step of the laboratory exercises. Furthermore, the laboratory environment can be equipped with functionality for monitoring the students' progress and learning outcomes, thus enabling skill‐based assessment.© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 22:788–802, 2014; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21573