Application of semantic approaches and interactive virtual technology to improve teaching effectiveness

This article describes an implementation of interactive virtual environments that have been designed for supporting the education of technical skills in material processing technology. The developed web-based systems provide the capability to train students in the technical skills of material processing technology without the need to work on actual machines in the laboratory. The effect of the developed system was examined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Generally, our results indicated that incorporating online interactive virtual environments into engineering courses can enhance students' technical skills in the operation ofinstruments, process planning and justification of process parameters. Findings also showed that the developed semantic web-based systems were able to facilitate investigation of material processing technology. The results also showed that there were significant improvements in the participants' motivation and learning.