Amirakal Stewart

March 24, 2020

Development and Validation of an

Attitude Assessment Scale for the
Use of 3D Printing in Education

INTRODUCTION

Technically 3D printing, also similar to additive manufacturing in industry,

refers to creating three dimensional solid objects from three-dimensional
computer-aided design materials by adding up the layers of the objects
(Johnson, Adams Becker, Estrada, & Freeman, 2015). In order to print
physical 3D objects, first of all, a user must design or import a digital model
using 3D modeling software, open source or commercial. Additionally,
online repositories provide free or commercial 3D models for designers.
After the design phase, the model is put into a slicing software which is used
to adjust the 3D printer setting and object properties such as the thickness,
and the size of the object. With the help of the slicing software, the 3D
object is cut into many slices. Then the 3D printer deposits the filament layer
by layer on the plate (Maloy, Trust, Kommers, Malinowski, & LaRoche,
2017). Although several materials might be used as raw material for
printing, today, Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid
(PLA) are the most widely used 3D printer filaments.

The research studies in the literature have shown that 3D printing

technologies have been used in several fields such as engineering, defense,
medicine, arts, and education. Proponents of 3D printing assume that it is a
revolutionary emerging technology and provides "novel opportunities that
have never before been feasible for creative production and prototypes"
(Canesca, Fonda, & Zennaro, 2013, p. 13). Markets and Markets (2017)
reported that the 3D printing market is expected to be worth more than 32
billion US$ by 2023. In addition to this, Sculptes's Report (2017) on the
state of 3D printing stated that 1000 participants from 62 different countries
in various professions such as engineering, CEOs, freelancers, and designers
were surveyed on the use of 3D printing in their occupation. It was found
that of the respondents, 90% of them considered 3D Printing as a
competitive advantage in their strategy, 47% of them saw a greater return on
investment than the previous year, 49% of them increased their expenses in
3D Printing in 2017, and 72% of them expected their spending on additive
manufacturing to increase for 2018.

Although it is estimated that between 2016 and 2020, the global 3D printing
market in education will grow at a CAGR of 28.57% (Research and
Markets, 2016), the current state shows that 3D printing has not been the
primary and common instructional technology for teaching and learning
environments. Factors that prevent the integration of 3D printing technology
in learning environments are the lack of software and hardware, technical
support, administrative support, and teachers' lack of knowledge, as well as
its novelty (Demir, Çaka, Tuğtekin, Demir, İslamoğlu & Kuzu, 2016).
Besides, the cost of hardware and raw material is high for today
(AbouHashem, Dayal, Savanah & Štrkalj, 2015). Although the use of 3D
printing in instructional settings has not been common yet, both the 2014
higher education and the 2013 K-12 edition of the NMC Horizon Report
(New Media Consortium, 2013; 2014) stated that it is an important
development for instructional technology, and schools have begun to use 3D
printers to demonstrate the design process and create models.