ASSESSING ORGANIZATIONAL AND PEDAGOGICAL CONDITIONS FOR TEACHING COMPUTER GRAPHICS TO IPF STUDENTS AT BNTU

ABSTRACT

This theoretical paper assesses the organizational and pedagogical conditions required for effective teaching of computer graphics to IPF students at BNTU, understood as Belarusian National Technical University. Using a design-oriented conceptual synthesis, it formulates a condition-based framework that links course architecture, infrastructure feasibility, feedback-intensive learning design, spatial-cognition support, and evidence-driven assessment. The result is an integrated model for quality assurance that specifies what must be in place for reliable competence development in engineering graphics and CAD: coherent sequencing and workload, stable access to software and laboratories, timely diagnostic feedback supported by portfolio evidence, explicit scaffolding of spatial visualization skills, and learning analytics used as interpretable mentoring support rather than surveillance. The framework is intended to guide course review and program improvement without relying on local survey data.

АННОТАЦИЯ

В данной теоретической работе анализируются организационные и педагогические условия, необходимые для эффективного обучения студентов ИФП БНТУ. На основе проектно ориентированного концептуального синтеза предлагается модель условий, связывающая архитектуру курса, инфраструктурную обеспеченность, обучение с интенсивной обратной связью, поддержку пространственного мышления и доказательную оценку. Результатом является интегрированная модель качества, уточняющая ключевые требования для надежного развития компетенций по инженерной графике и САПР: согласованная последовательность и нагрузка, стабильный доступ к ПО и лабораториям, своевременная диагностическая обратная связь и портфолио, целевая поддержка пространственной визуализации и аналитика обучения как интерпретируемая опора наставничества, а не контроль. Модель предназначена для анализа и улучшения программы без опоры на локальные опросы.

Keywords: computer graphics; CAD education; engineering pedagogy; organizational conditions; formative assessment; learning analytics; BNTU.

Ключевые слова: компьютерная графика; образование в области САПР; инженерная педагогика; организационные условия; формирующее оценивание; аналитика обучения; БНТУ.

INTRODUCTION

Educating IPF students in computer graphics at BNTU can be interpreted as the cultivation of the dual competence, as an engineer to create and interpret technical representations to fulfill engineering goals and to be ready to train how to represent various techniques. This renders the idea of conditions at the center of quality because cumulative and error-hesitant learning relies on numerous repetitions and feedback on time, along with gradual incorporation of concepts instead of being exposed to the content. The conditions of organization include institutional and course provisions that enable iterative learning to occur, whereas pedagogical provisions include the instructional design that develops representational reasoning and tool fluency.

The major problem is that computer graphics cannot be reduced to act as software. Learners have to master representational logic, geometric constraint reasoning, 2D to 3D translation, and variables in spatial visualisation could lead results unless training is done to build these abilities. The study of Kadam et al. (2021) demonstrates that when spatial cognition can be trained, then the process of engineering drawing performance performance can be enhanced with specific assistance to mental rotation. Structurally, the most common failures are caused by the inadequate time-on-task and density of feedback caused by friction of infrastructure, dynamic access to software, or end of task-based assessment that leave misconceptions in place between tasks. The paper will thus suggest a set of conditions performance evaluation framework to determine whether BNTU computer graphics training programs are designed to yield valid sufficiency results on IPF students.

METHODS

In this study, the design-oriented conceptual synthesis has been applied in which computer graphics teaching is seen as an educational system. It calls such conditions of assessable determinants between institutional inputs, pedagogical processes, and evidence of competence results and developes evaluative criteria on program design and quality assurance instead of reporting a local survey. The digital support is deemed valuable only when it is embedded into the process of decision making and its purpose is pedagogical. Analytics may contribute to the prompt detection and progress monitoring, although it is possible only when the metrics are interpretable and related to educational outcomes; Nguyen et al. (2021) underline actionability, alignment, and interpretability (which should be performed using decontextualized indicators) rather than height. In line with this, the framework uses analytics based on its input into feedback, mentoring, and revision, rather than dashboard sophistication. The output of the synthesis is a structured framework which describes condition clusters, their rationale and evidence to demonstrate that each condition is met in practice.

RESULTS

The synthesis has delivered an integrated assessment model, which considers organizational and pedagogical conditions as one system, organized into four interdependent clusters, including organizational feasibility, pedagogical feedback design, cognitive-development support, and evidence-and-analytics governance. Organizational feasibility implies that the course can be dependably used to practice and revise deliberately based on the consistent sequencing of the principles of initial representation to advanced CAD modeling, realistic correspondence of both the number of hours worked separately with a real workload, and uninterrupted access to laboratories and programs. Infrastructure is viewed as a pedagogical determinant since the stability of licensing, hardware speed, consistency of version and file-handling and submission routines have a direct influence on the number of practice feedback cycles that students can accomplish and whether evaluation is focused on timely revision or concentrated at the end of the module.

The design of pedagogical feedback establishes competence as being defined in such a way that highly restricted representations are generated and justifications of modeling decisions are made based on conventions of representation, therefore feedback must be ongoing and diagnostic as opposed to infrequent and only summative. The course is enhanced by normalizing revision, making quality criteria available in the work context, and incorporating feedback mechanisms that reveal the common errors; interactive self assessment tools can enhance CAD pedagogy through enhancing immediacy and specificity of feedback and facilitating the process of problem solving in an iterative way [3]. This is supplemented by cognitive-development support, which views the spatial visualization as something trainable and hence requiring early diagnostics, 2D to 3D bridging drills, and exercises that externalize the mental transformations on a sketch and rotation steps, and decomposition strategies, eliminating the risk of achievement being due to prior exposure instead of instructional usefulness.

Evidence-and-analytics governance dictates that driven advancements be reported as attestable competence evidence over time through sets of drawings, CAD models, and reflective rationales correlated with outcomes and responding to enhancement with revision. When it represents process and final products, and when it is consistent with the representation logic of foregrounds and the constraint correctness and expressive clarity represent the evidence of a desirable type. Analytics has been viewed educationally legitimate only in cases where it helps to promote mentoring and self regulation through evidence gaps or practice pattern highlighting but maintaining instructor authority to review the quality of artifacts and contextualize measures.

DISCUSSION

According to the diagram, the evaluation of the organizational and pedagogical situation involving the teaching of computer graphics to IPF students at BNTU needs to be conducted in terms of viability within realistic conditions that are unique to the situation at BNTU. Quality assurance then needs to consider the analysis of an end to end chain of circumstances such as safeguarded practice chances, timely diagnostic messages, explicit support of spatial cognition and competence proof uncoherent across tasks and time. It is also made clear that the role of dashboards and learning analytics at BNTU can not be diminished to monitoring activities because core learning outcomes are artifact based and demand expert qualitative consideration. Kaliisa and Dolonen suggest that teacher facing dashboards should be effective when constructed on meaningful constructs and teacher agency instead of control logics [4].

The technological analysis of emerging visualization technologies needs to be evaluated by the strength they reinforce these conditions, but not by novelty. The technology increases access to meaningful practice, reduces conceptual barriers to spatial understanding, and enhances the quality of feedback, which makes it work as a condition enhancer and not an add-on. In this regard, AR and other similar systems may be validated in the case when they can be proven that result in a stronger revision cycle and conceptual understanding; here Tiwari et al. (2024) indicate that an augmented reality system of an engineering drawing course will be able to increase the performance of learning through the availability of geometric relations and transformations with the help of interactive representations [5]. Combined, the condition-based model is no longer focused on isolated methods as the systemic preconditions of mastery where infrastructure, feedback, cognition support, and evidence governance all become triggered to ensure that competence is not only measurable, but truly achievable.

References:

1. Kadam, K., Mishra, S., Deep, A., & Iyer, S. (2021). Enhancing engineering drawing skills via fostering mental rotation processes. European Journal of Engineering Education, 46(5), pp. 796–812. https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2021.1920891
2. Nguyen, A., Tuunanen, T., Gardner, L., & Sheridan, D. (2021). Design principles for learning analytics information systems in higher education. European Journal of Information Systems, 30(5), pp. 541–568. https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2020.1816144
3. Pando Cerra, P., Fernández Álvarez, H., Busto Parra, B., & Castaño Busón, S. (2023). Boosting computer-aided design pedagogy using interactive self-assessment graphical tools. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 31(1), pp. 26–46. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.22569
4. Kaliisa, R., & Dolonen, J. A. (2023). CADA: A teacher-facing learning analytics dashboard to foster teachers’ awareness of students’ participation and discourse patterns in online discussions. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 28, pp. 937–958. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-022-09598-7
5. Tiwari, A. S., Bhagat, K. K., & Lampropoulos, G. (2024). Designing and evaluating an augmented reality system for an engineering drawing course. Smart Learning Environments, 11, pp. 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-023-00289-z