Effectiveness of a hypermedia tool in the innovative teaching of pneumatic engineering design drawing

Abstract This article presents research undertaken to determine the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of the “pneumatic engineering design drawing” hypermedia. Among our reasons for carrying out this research are the implementation of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), the inexistence on the market of a similar product, and an increasing daily need for asynchronous teaching methods. Its objectives sought to evaluate the application and its impact on the teaching–learning of pneumatics. Two sources of documentation were used as research strategies: opinion polls and experimentation. Three groups of equal size were formed at random, based on traditional teaching (T), self‐study using multimedia (M), and traditional teaching reinforced by the use of the hypermedia (A). The following rank among some of the more noteworthy conclusions. The hypermedia application has been positively rated. In the group with prior knowledge of the subject, the results of the post‐test are strongly related to those of the pre‐test in pneumatics. There is no empirical evidence to support the affirmation that students in group A achieved better results that those in group M or group T. In group M, academic performance is not directly dependent on the intellectual abilities of the student. The minimum time saving in group M was 42% in comparison with the other two groups. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 15: 289–307, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae.20158