A new Concept of Study Materials for Machine Design

Machine design is one of the most promising fields of study in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of West Bohemia (FST) regarding the demand for specialists in this field. The primary goal of FST is to graduate students well equipped to meet that demand. Nowadays, the main issue of higher education in the Czech Republic related to mechanical engineering is the lack of opportunities for students to acquire practical knowledge and experience in the field during their studies. One week of practice in a mechanical engineering company is insufficient compared with the German method of regularly alternating teaching of theory with practice. Therefore the study of Mechanical Engineering in the Czech Republic has been isolated from the praxis in engineering companies and the competitiveness of graduates has been reduced (Vavreckova 2009). In addition, the feedback from the engineering industry provided by employed graduates confirms that providing real projects to students should be the priority of FST. This research aims to develop a new concept of Machine Design study materials as a part of the solution to the issues described above to support the teaching process by providing a basis for student teamwork as well as individual work. Choosing the electronic form for creating the study materials is beneficial thanks to the technology of displaying three-dimensional computer-aided design (CAD) models in regular portable document format (PDF). It is also possible to include a large amount of additional information in these models. Traditionally this additional information is transferred to students in an ineffective written form. By creating a PDF file containing CAD models enhanced with additional information, it is possible to deliver it to students in a new interactive way. There are also many aspects which need to be described in Machine Design study materials along with each design project. The main aspects are the design process, assembly process, manufacturing process, economic aspects and interconnections between them. As this list is far from being comprehensive, it is obvious that Machine Design is a highly specific field related to the teaching and learning process. Considering the need of making available the real projects to students, design projects provided by local engineering companies were selected as a form of study materials. The sample study material was created and made available to students through the Courseware of the University of West Bohemia, which is being used as a platform for e-learning on FST. The main purpose of this paper was to describe the form and the structure of the study materials.