**1. Introduction**

At the end of the 20th century, companies indicated that engineers were very individualistic. This profile did not meet the new needs of the industry, such as task managemen<sup>t</sup> between several work teams or design and manufacturing time. For this, communication between all project members was a major requirement [1]. This lack inevitably relates to the fact that in engineering education the lecture method was the main teaching approach [2]. Today, human collaboration and interoperability of software systems are essential requirements in industry 4.0 [3].

In the industry, product lifecycle managemen<sup>t</sup> (PLM) applications have been used for decades to reduce design time and to manage collaborative work of the product engineering teams [4]. So, 3D modeling software companies for engineering such as Pro-Engineer, Autodesk or Solidworks offer collaborative work platforms (Autodesk Vault, PTC PLM Cloud or 3D Experience) that are mainly aimed at large companies and combine PLM tasks and 3D modeling, that we will abbreviate as PDLM (product design and life management). Nevertheless, the cost and use complexity of these collaborative platforms makes their implementation in educational engineering environments very difficult.

Meanwhile, collaborative pedagogies and project-based learning methods are becoming increasingly popular. Their combination with cloud-based software creates a simulation of the professional context. So, this approach fosters coordination and communication between team members while solving challenges. For this, several cloud technologies have been tested in education to improve collaborative learning (Google Docs, Skype, Dropbox, Facebook, Prezi, Skype, etc.) [5]. Collaborative writing tasks in distance engineering education have also been tested with web-based tool experiences and have obtained high student acceptability [6], deeper learning and high motivation [7]. Moreover, they promote a self-motivational environment and help students to comprehend the engineering profession [8]. Likewise, e-journals allow sharing laboratory resources among colleagues with certain limitations due to technical compatibility problems [9]. However, they focus on communication and writing [10]. They are not entirely appropriate for particular engineering activities such as design and 3D modeling.

In Spain, engineering graphics professors have begun to assume the shift towards multi-method active teaching [11] and the inclusion of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) methodologies [12,13]. Furthermore, project-based learning stands as one of the most appropriate methods for the development of professional competencies of the engineer [14].

In this context, a collaborative experience has been carried out with civil engineering students at the University of La Laguna in the academic year 2018–2019. The novelty of this study relies on the use of categories to deepen the student perception of usability of a PDLM software through a categorical analysis of variance, which is essential to know how to design training experiences for industry 4.0. Autodesk Fusion 360 software is used to develop the graphic simulation of an engineering project. This cloud-based software incorporates PLM tools and a 3D modeling synchronous environment. This paper focuses on the explanation of the educational experience and the student's perception of the resolution of an engineering project under the approach of collaborative design as training for industry 4.0.

At the University of La Laguna, engineering graphics professors teach under a project-based learning approach. In groups, students design an engineering product made of five components, which they model in 3D solids. Then, they develop 2D drawings and produce dynamic animations and create some realistic infographics. In 2013, Autodesk Inventor and Dropbox were combined to achieve collaboration in the 3D modeling process [15,16]. This system was a simulation of a PDLM application in terms of functionality, which allowed several students to work simultaneously in the creation of the project graphic documentation. However, this system had the following limitation: students could not use simultaneously the same design file. A similar experience took place at the School of Engineering Arts et Metiers ParisTech by combining Catia V5 and Dropbox [17].

The recent arrival of Autodesk Fusion 360 solves some of the tasks reserved for the PLM programs that the engineering companies use. Fusion 360 combines 3D modeling with the advantages of cloud computing tools (Figure 1) through cloud-stored files in the Autodesk cloud (called A360). It naturally allows collaborative 3D modeling, which is appropriate for educational environments and fab labs [18].

**Figure 1.** (**a**) A 3D modeling environment and (**b**) file web environment (A360).

In 2017 Vila, Ugarte, Ríos and Abellán [19] proposed the use of PLM systems to encourage collaboration among engineering students. They compared Fusion 360 and 3D Experience in terms of data management, decision support, personal data management, project managemen<sup>t</sup> and communication. They concluded that both environments allowed proper collaborative 3D-model management. Moreover, while 3D Experience allows better project planning and its data managemen<sup>t</sup> is highly complex, Fusion 360 presented more limitations in the other categories. Nevertheless, Fusion 360 seemed to be easier to be implemented in educational environments in terms of economic cost (free for educational purposes and for start-ups generating less than \$100,000/year in total revenue or wholly non-commercial hobbyist users [20]) and ease of learning.

Likewise, in the Youngstown State University, Brozina and Sharma used Fusion 360 in their first year of engineering design course [21]. They conducted a collaborative workshop using Cloud Computing to allow the exchange of notes and views using browsers, mobile devices and the software itself. They concluded that students better understand the collaboration process using a collaborative 3D modeling environment.

Rassovytska and Striuk analyzed the suitability of cloud tools for the professional activity of mechanical engineers [22]. The objective of this work was to identify mobile and cloud services for professional activity in mechanical engineering and how to implement them in higher education. More than 30 services in the cloud and mobile applications were evaluated. The analysis found that the use of the services in the Autodesk cloud and its integration with Google Cloud is appropriate for teaching and professional use in mechanical engineering. They applied a questionnaire to professionals and professors to figure out which competencies engineers should enhance. CAD software was pointed out as the most important, followed in the seventh position by collaboration. They analyzed On-Shape, a 3D CAD cloud-based application that works on the web browser, which has been developed from scratch to solve the current problems of engineers, taking into account aspects such as collaboration in 3D environments. They analyzed functionality, availability, access, integration and collaboration; Fusion 360 obtained the highest value.

At the University of Illinois, the professors decided to move from non-collaborative CAD software (Inventor, Rhinoceros and Alias) towards Autodesk Fusion 360 for the creation of digital prototyping in multidisciplinary teams [23]. Most students indicated that they used the Fusion 360 cloud options and also that the use of this application reduced the need for face-to-face meetings. Moreover, they indicated that they usually worked simultaneously in several design stages which improved their productivity.

Furthermore, at the University of Tianjin (China), the di fferent environments o ffered by Fusion 360 were analyzed and it was concluded that this application is an ideal tool for collaborative design in engineering, since it integrates modeling, rendering, manufacturing analysis and data managemen<sup>t</sup> [24].

Besides, some synchronous collaboration tools may not be successful in face-to-face teaching. Students seem to prefer direct interaction and when they need an alternative, they choose their asynchronous communication solutions such as SMS [9]. Furthermore, one of the educational challenges in the inclusion of PLM software is that students must know how to divide the work among the di fferent stakeholders [16].

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

The research design corresponds to a quantitative quasi-experimental approach. A collaborative graphic simulation of an engineering project was proposed in the engineering graphics subject of the civil engineering degree at the University of La Laguna in the academic year 2018–2019. After the elaboration and presentation of each team's results, a questionnaire was designed and applied to measure student's perception of the resolution of an engineering project under the approach of integral collaborative design as training for industry 4.0. Groups were asked to agree on their answers, but each member delivered their own questionnaire sheet. This criterion was based on the need to receive a group perception of the collaborative practice, meanwhile we took into consideration whether the number of students in each group varied. Then, Cronbach's alpha and descriptive analysis were conducted (mean, median and standard deviation). Consequently, line graphs were generated to observe whether Usability of Product Design and Life Management platform (UPDLM) scale values

varied concerning three grouping variables. Finally, non-parametric analyses were applied to check whether the previous di fferences were statistically meaningful.
