Assessment of Virtual Technology as a Teaching Method in Aircraft Maintenance
Presented during Poster Session - NTAS Presenters and ERAU-PhD Programs
Abstract
Aircraft maintenance is an assembly of different tasks involving different people and technologies. Virtual reality is now the latest way in enhancing human interaction with the help of a simulator or any other man-machine system. The advantage of this choice is that the lowest possible cost and ease of access to users. Aerospace firms, especially maintenance companies, have been trying to implement VR to improve safety, reliability and to reduce costs. However, it remains to be seen if VR is a better and efficient way to teach students and employees, when compared to traditional methods. The hypothesis for this study is that the time taken to find a crack in a wing and fix it, will be the same for the students whether they learn through traditional methods or virtual technology. For this experiment, 45 fresher maintenance students who have no knowledge about aviation maintenance will be selected and split it into three groups. The dependent variable will be the time taken by the participants to find the crack. A one-way between-subject’s ANOVA will be conducted initially to find significant difference the groups. Later a within-subject’s ANOVA will be conducted to find the retention rate of the participants. Expected results would be that the students who learnt repairs through Virtual Technology will perform well as students who learnt it through traditional method.
Assessment of Virtual Technology as a Teaching Method in Aircraft Maintenance
Jim W. Henderson Administration & Welcome Center (Bldg. #602)
Aircraft maintenance is an assembly of different tasks involving different people and technologies. Virtual reality is now the latest way in enhancing human interaction with the help of a simulator or any other man-machine system. The advantage of this choice is that the lowest possible cost and ease of access to users. Aerospace firms, especially maintenance companies, have been trying to implement VR to improve safety, reliability and to reduce costs. However, it remains to be seen if VR is a better and efficient way to teach students and employees, when compared to traditional methods. The hypothesis for this study is that the time taken to find a crack in a wing and fix it, will be the same for the students whether they learn through traditional methods or virtual technology. For this experiment, 45 fresher maintenance students who have no knowledge about aviation maintenance will be selected and split it into three groups. The dependent variable will be the time taken by the participants to find the crack. A one-way between-subject’s ANOVA will be conducted initially to find significant difference the groups. Later a within-subject’s ANOVA will be conducted to find the retention rate of the participants. Expected results would be that the students who learnt repairs through Virtual Technology will perform well as students who learnt it through traditional method.
