Design Engineering Educational Framework Using ShareFast: A Semantic Web-Based E-Learning System

Design is a central activity to all types of engineering. Each engineer must be equipped with skills in design engineering. Education of design engineering, as a result, has now started to change in response. This paper proposes a design engineering educational framework using ShareFast, an open source, client/server application for document management system based on workflow, as e-learning tool. The association between design documents and workflow is described by metadata based on semantic Web technology. The client software offers a workflow editor to create and edit workflow. Additionally, the software offers a function for instructors to monitor learner´s behavior so that they can analyze it to improve class efficiency. The e-learning system has been used for empirical studies with university students. The results showed that learning engineering design by workflow helped the students understand design process more easily, and the system can shorten the students´ learning duration