Design of a touch sensation application including surface tension sample using a haptic device in engineering education

Abstract

This paper illustrates the effects of force feedback haptic applications as an educational material on the attitudes of students in engineering education. For this purpose, a simulation design has been carried out on a surface tension subject from physical chemistry. The availability of haptic devices in educational environments has accelerated. Although surface tension occurs at the atomic and molecular levels, the effects can be seen and the results are noticeable in daily life. These and similar applications make it necessary for this to be used as educational material by modeling and simulating small scale events such as surface. The aim of this study is to reach the conclusion that the haptic simulations that take place outside the scale of our daily lives (micro & macro) have a positive effect on the attitudes of students. It is also one of the expected results that the measurement values related to the research subject are proportionally transferred to the haptic device, consistently. In this application, a haptic device and its supporting application programming interfaces (API) for render operations have been used. A sample consisting of 48 engineering students has been divided into survey and control groups. While the survey group was working with the haptic application, the control group worked with conventional teaching methods. The data obtained from the sample have been analysed statistically, and the results have been evaluated. The findings of the research show that the survey group had a more positive attitude towards the haptic applications than the control group.