Preliminary Study on Quantitative Research Methods of Discussion-based Teaching: CAD/CAM Course

Computer-aided design and manufacturing,or CAD/CAM,in a narrow sense,is the use of a computer for component design and machining. As a specialized course for students,CAD/CAM course is a required course for undergraduates majoring in mechanical engineering and related engineering majors and also the core technical skills to be mastered during the undergraduate study. Based on the teaching practices of CAD/CAM course,this paper tries to introduce the discussion-based method in curriculum design and the implementation of the course,and enhance the interaction between teachers and students through using new information interaction tools such as We Chat group and course homepage to stimulate students’ interest,and also expand the learning space and time. Thus,the problems students have will be solved in real time. In this study,for the first time,the statistical methods are used to record detailed the speaking time,keywords and the frequency of teachers and students’ interaction,and also carries out quantitative analysis in order to explore the interactive patterns between teacher and students in discussion-based teaching,so as to improve communication and learning efficiency between teacher and students. Meanwhile,this paper also discussed the advantages and the disadvantages of using discussion-based teaching in the hope that it can provide reference for the following discussion-based teaching of CAD/CAM course in mechanical or related engineering majors.