We discuss the importance of visualization skills in engineering education and propose a dual approach to helping students improve their spatial abilities. The approach is based on computer graphics applications, and uses both Web-based graphics applications and a sketch-based modeling, system. By combining these approaches, we can capture students' attention and foster two important engineering skills: freehand sketching and an understanding of the relationship between orthographic and axonometric views.

Realistic 3D geovisualization is necessary to facilitate the perception of a landscape designer in relation to the environment, which is a determining factor in decision-making in landscape planning and management. In the field of landscape design teaching learning environments, game engines can offer an immersive 3D geovisualization mode through Virtual Reality technology, which, in addition, can be motivating for the student. Game engines allow designing the scenarios where videogames take place, but game engines can also be used for geovisualization tasks in landscape design teaching environments. In this article, we present the landscape workshop, using a Unity 3D game engine. Twenty-five architect students performed landscape design tasks and worked with an interactive 3D geovisualization low-immersive desktop screen environment. The perception of the 3D environment during geovisualization was analyzed through the Questionnaire on User eXperience in Immersive Virtual Environments, and the motivational factor with the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory. Results showed a high perception of the 3D environment during geovisualization in the nine subcategories (sense of presence, engagement, immersion, flow, usability, emotion, judgment, experience consequence, and technology adoption) analyzed. The game engine-based teaching approach carried out has been motivating for students, with values over 5 (in a 1–7 Likert scale) in the five subscales considered.

In the field of geographical and environmental education, maps and geo-referenced information are frequently used, in which the earth's surfaces are represented in a two-dimensional (2D) way. Students have difficulty interpreting the relief representation and switching between 2D and 3D scenarios. Digital terrain modelling is added to the traditional cartographic techniques to represent the landforms, and the AR technology provides a new 3D and mapping human–machine interaction. In the 2015–2016 course, an educational experiment using AR on a tablet with 63 students from La Laguna University was performed covering three steps: academic improvement, usability of this technology to interpret the relief, and if it is motivating for the students. This paper presents the results in usability and motivation. A usability study in terms of efficiency, efficacy and satisfaction is presented. To assess student motivation, the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory motivational model with six dimensions is adopted. Results about AR on tablets in the interpretation of terrain relief show a great usability of this technology, which serves as a motivational tool for the 3D visualization.

Creative thinking is an essential part of learning for sustainability, as recent studies indicate. Creativity enables the engineer to find solutions for the design of a new product or for the improvement of one already designed, to make it more sustainable. However, currently, engineering education does not usually assess academic performance in terms of creativity, and although interest in creative processes in engineering is growing, its implementation in the classroom is still scarce. In the present study, a creativity workshop was conducted in order to find multiple solutions to the problem posed, in accordance with divergent thinking. The workshop was based on a 3D CAD modelling activity, and the students needed to give different 3D design solutions starting from a two-dimensional shape. The participants were 72 engineering students from the engineering graphics subject in the degree in agricultural engineering and rural areas. Nine different creative components were evaluated. That way, not only was a generic measure of creativity obtained, but it was also possible to know the evolution of the student after the workshop for each of the components of creativity separately. The results of the workshop confirmed that creativity could be enhanced, and therefore, the learning process for sustainability can be improved in engineering.