Improving spatial ability using a Web-based Virtual Environment (WbVE)

Spatial ability is one of the cognitive means used in problem solving activities particularly when manipulating and processing visuo-spatial information. With the increasing use of network communication, conventional teaching and learning has shifted towards the development of network environments, online learning, real-time interaction and high quality multi-user collaboration. This paper presents our experiment using a Web-based Virtual Environment (WbVE) that has improved a group of pre-service teachers' spatial ability understanding for teaching Engineering Drawing for secondary school subjects. The experiment is carried out in Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) comprising of 98 pre-service teachers taking the Computer Aided-Design (CAD) course. Selected subjects were pre-tested at the beginning of the semester with spatial tests focusing on mental rotation and spatial visualization to provide the baseline measurement. A desktop WbVE, which was employed and tested in the CAD laboratories to improve their spatial ability for five weeks of instructional treatment, will be demonstrated. Post-testing of spatial tests revealed significantly the overall spatial ability improvements as measured by the test scores. This paper concludes with a discussion on the impact of WbVE spatial learning that will be used as a precedent in the development of the VE teaching and learning prototypes for secondary school in Malaysia. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V, All rights reserved.