A study of difficulty factors in piping diagram reading in an engine room simulator environment

Demand for an engine room simulator has recently increased. Several manufacturers provide 3-dimensional animation or computer graphic imaging for application in virtual reality technology. Furthermore, educational tool hardware are improving on a daily basis. As educational institute researchers, we consider the planning of effective training exercises based on a simulated environment. In addition to hardware-related issues, software-related issues also exist in educational situations. One of the major difficulties associated with solving these problems is adjusting the task level according to the skill of the student, for which it must be known if the students are in fact finding any difficulty. We therefore conducted a questionnaire survey and factor analysis to detect the latent factors that affect the degree of difficulty, using data gathered via a questionnaire survey. Based on the findings of a questionnaire survey, we presented the difficulty factors encountered by students in understanding an engine room piping diagram.