Erasmus+ Programme KA2 STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP PROJECT  
„Contemporary Approach to the Development of Spatial Comprehension through Augmented Reality Content“
SPACAR
N° 2019-1-LT01-KA202-060471

Project summary

The quality of modern engineering education is directly linked with the students’ ability to create and read the drawings of engineering structures. The development of spatial skills for engineering students is closely related to the success in their future professional career.

Visualization of geometric problems helps students to understand and to solve the given geometric tasks. Augmented Reality (AR) is one of the many achievements of modern information technology that is also available also for educational purposes.  Augmented Reality application enables faster comprehension of complex spatial problems and relationships which will benefit the students greatly during their learning processes. Augmented Reality is a new technology that lets you interact with there a world and virtual objects at the same time.  It is supposed that AR will provide new possibilities to teach the contemporary generation of students in an attractive and more entertaining way. The use of AR technology facilitates the students to acquire better practical skills in much shorter time during their academic studies and improves the quality of graphic education.

The objective of the project is to develop the didactic tool kit which includes a set of practical exercises with 3D objects prepared for the use into AR environment. The didactic toolkit is specified for vocational schools, colleges and universities where the graphical engineering subjects are compulsory.

The didactic toolkit will allow to develop spatial skills of students of vocational schools and higher schools, to obtain practical experience in solving graphic exercises and will give an opportunity to enhance the quality of graphic education.

Applying AR technology to support learning activities may become a trend for graphical engineering subjects. AR application is used to entertain the students during the studies. The AR didactic toolkit allows to create an attractive teaching methodology and increases the motivation of students to study graphical engineering subjects.

During the project, the didactic toolkit which includes a set of practical exercises with 3D objects prepared for the use into AR environment will be created. The didactic toolkit will be tested in vocational schools and higher schools.

It is planned to prepare the material in English, Lithuanian, Polish, Latvian, Spanish and German.

Taking into account, the project partners need to improve technical and didactical competences of drawing (engineering computer graphics) vocational teachers, lecturers, instructors of vocational schools, colleges and universities; it is planned to do the following in the upcoming project "Contemporary Approach to the Development of Spatial Comprehension through Augmented Reality Content":
1. Investigate the methodology of teaching and content of the graphical subjects in educational institutions in the partner countries;
2. Prepare the material of:
2.1. Cutting Geometrical Solids with Planes.
2.2. Intersections of Geometrical Surfaces.
2.3. Orthographic projections.
2.4. Construction of Elements of Machine Parts.
2.5 Architectural and Construction Drawing.
3. Software for AR 3D objects visualization.
4. Prepare the website project "Contemporary Approach to the Development of Spatial Comprehension through Augmented Reality Content" in all partners’ languages.
5. After preparing the project methodological material and started testing, there will be organized 3-day training in partner country P2. Rīgas Tehniskā universitāte (Latvia).
6. Perform remote testing of the project "Contemporary Approach to the Development of Spatial Comprehension through Augmented Reality Content".
7. Perform spread/ valorisation activities.
8. Develop a system for quality assurance of the project activities.

The methodological materials of project will be prepared by the scientists and practitioners from the European Union countries: Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Spain, Germany.

Target groups of the project:
- Students of vocational schools;
- Students of higher schools and colleges;
- Vocational teachers;
- Lecturers of higher schools and colleges, scientists of that field.

There are participating 8 partners in the project from 5 (Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Spain, Germany) European Union countries.  All project activities are distributed among the partners according to their competences and skills in order to give the project the best added value:
P1. Public Institution Vilnius Builders Training Centre (Lithuania);
P2. Rīgas Tehniskā universitāte (Latvia);
P3. Warsaw Technical University (Poland);
P4. Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain);
P5. Šiauliai vocational education and training centre (Lithuania);
P6. SNEAKYBOX (Lithuania) Information technology company;
P7. Jugendförderverein (Germany);
P8. DECROLY Centro Homologado de Formacion profesional (Spain).