Self-Paced Instruction to Introduce Traffic Engineering in Virtual City (Sooner City)

This paper presents the results of one portion of a larger program conducted at the University of Oklahoma to introduce students to engineering and design through the use of a virtual city called ‘Sooner City’. This particular module is used to introduce the students to traffic engineering through an easily-understood, internet-based learning environment. Since most freshman engineering students have little knowledge about engineering, it is helpful for them to learn through the use of interactivity and visualization. Also, because the module is web-based, the students were able to interactively control their learning pace. Through this approach, the students were required to design practical engineering cases and then visualize the design in a virtual world. The definitions for the level of service of traffic engineering were also presented through the use of text, pictures, sounds, simulations, animations and video in an integrated, web-based learning environment. Through the web, the students were able to set the basic design variables of the freeway section in the virtual world of Sooner City. The design variables included the traffic flow rate, the number of lanes, the length of the acceleration lane, and the on-ramp configuration. To help better understand the effectiveness of the learning environment, a survey was administered to all students using the module. The results of this survey are presented in the paper.