Learning improvement of equipment operation by low‐cost personalized simulators to particular industrial installations.

Although there are different types of software resources—which in many cases favor a reduction in learning time—there are not too many options to develop a training simulator designed according to some particular real equipment. The case of the Engineering Equation Software is an effective tool that improves the learning of thermodynamics and the understanding of real thermodynamic cycles. In the present paper, an original programming procedure to improve the learning process of Marine Engineering students at the University of A Coruña (UDC) is shown. In particular, to test this learning procedure, an Operator Training Simulator is done by 117 students by the fusion of the contents of two subjects of the "Degree in Marine Technologies" of the UDC. The main advantage that this personalized simulator presents is confronting problems derived from equipment operation, thereby proving the necessary knowledge in operation based on the thermodynamic phenomena. The results showed that students who were trained with simulators showed a better understanding of the knowledge obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]