Computer aided drawing software delivered through emotional learning. The use of emoticons and GIFs as a tool for increasing student engagement

Abstract

It is known that one of the key factors for many manufacturing companies, who are involved in the design and development process, is represented by the quality of the skills, capacity and experience of computer-aided design draftsman and designers. This means that effective, up-to-date and engaging training has to be performed by teachers and instructors, since the early stage lectures for novice engineering students. When learners are engaged and actively participate in the training process, then this transfers in to a high, deep level of learning, quality of the learnt topics and perceived passion. The following question arises, “how can the process of improving the absorption of information concerning Computer Aided Drawing software lectures, through an iterative, engaging process, be facilitated?”. This work represents a fist attempt to analyse and discuss, by using some of the main theories related to the learning process, how student engagement can be positively affected by using emoticons and GIFs during CAD software lectures.