EDUCATIONAL PROCESS OF TEACHING COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN: FAMILIARIZATION OF NOVICE STUDENTS WITH TECHNIQUES OF DIGITAL ARCHITECTURAL/URBAN/PLANNING DESIGN AND INTERACTIVE SIMULATION OF A BUILT-UP AREA.

Object: This research refers to the teaching of computer aided architectural/urban design and presents an educational process/method of digital design/simulation of architectural and urban space via computer aided design systems. This educational process was applied in tertiary education in two faculties of engineering of European universities and was taught to engineering students who studied architectural/urban/regional spatial planning. Methods: The phases of this educational process broadly (a) identify needs in the framework of teaching digital design and (b) define pedagogical thematic entities and their contents in the form of lesson plans (defining a study area, students? roles and groups, and describing partial, short-term and long-term research objectives). This educational process was evaluated by (a) a questionnaire on digital design influence on students? learning, understanding and practice and (b) a students? grade results analysis of digital design courses. Results: 68% of the students indicated the ?learning and adapting digital design process? as a normal to easy process and almost 80% that digital design helps 2D/3D spatial perception. Only 39% of the students indicate that digital design helps significantly the design conception process (lack of digital design integration in conception process). Furthermore, the learning performance of the university students (higher academic level) proved more significant than that of those who attended technological educational institutes (lower academic level). Conclusions: The digital design process necessitates a clearly engineering reflection. On the other hand, the engineer must ?protect? and ?adjust? their critical approach and conception process to the demands of digital design methodologies.