Impact of Simulation Softwares as Teaching Tools in Engineering Learning - An Instructional Design Choice

Quality Engineering Education has been identified as the foremost thrust area in India. The thrust is mainly due to the new establishment/enrichment of various core engineering industry sectors like Automobile, Healthcare, Agriculture, Avionics, Structural, Telecommunication and Mobile Technologies. Currently even though the country graduates a bulk volume of engineers every year, a major composition of this volume is drained to IT service sectors for employment. To enhance the above thrust of the country many engineering education institutions started focusing on quality of the offered education in terms of numerical ability, creativity and design ability of engineers. The Course Outcomes and Programme Specific Outcomes have been designed with the above focus as a guideline. More emphasis on integration of technology into instruction with learner-centric approach is encouraged. Simulation tools as teaching aids will enrich the understanding ability of the learner. In this work the confidence level of the learners to attain the course level objectives through simulation based teaching pedagogy has been explored. The survey records ensure the impact of this innovative instructional design for the desired course outcomes.