Printlab 3D Printing Curriculum

• Grades: 5+
• Number of Students: 1, 35, or unlimited
• Additional Resources: Browse Courses, 7-day Free Trial

Highlights:

PrintLab is an online learning platform that offers courses, tools, and certifications in 3D CAD and 3D printing. Their mission is to empower designers and makers with industry-recognised skills, while guiding them in designing meaningful products along the way.

There are 3 course types available in PrintLab's library, that you can pick and choose from:

Mini Courses - Mini courses feature informative videos or step-by-step tutorials, building foundational 3D printing knowledge and 3D CAD skills in Tinkercad or Autodesk Fusion (both free for personal non-commercial use). Each course ends with a quiz, and you can download a certificate if you score over 70%.

Projects - Projects guide you through each stage of the design process to create products in the fields of assistive technology, product design, and STEM. They offer a blend of online and offline design activities, as well as an editable template portfolio to document and showcase your creative journey.

Challenges - Challenges are open-ended design briefs built around real-world contexts. Learners have the freedom to design creative solutions across themes such as assistive technology, homeware, outdoor adventures, and 3D printed games.

PrintLab 3D Printing Certification Program

While progressing through mini courses, projects, and challenges - you can earn official PrintLab Certifications that highlight your skills and professional development. Each certification is awarded as a formal certificate and is accompanied by a certification badge image, which can be used as a visual marker in places like your email signature or within social media posts.

Certifications are awarded upon submitting your mini course certificates, portfolios and challenge solutions so be sure to check out the certification program course for more details.

What's Included:

License Options

1 Year Personal License (For designers and makers)

• 1 personal account with 1 year access to all PrintLab courses

• Certification for 1 user

1 Year Teacher License (For individual teachers and STEM instructors)

• 1 teacher account with access to all PrintLab courses

• Generate up to 3 share links at any one time. Share links only give access to the specific course shared and up to 35 people can use an individual share link at any one time

• Certification for 1 teacher

• Certification for up to 35 students

1 Year Site License (For schools, universities, libraries, makerspaces and STEM organisations)

• UNLIMITED teacher accounts with access to all PrintLab courses

• Each teacher can generate an UNLIMITED number of share links

• Certification for UNLIMITED teachers

• Certification for UNLIMITED students 

Technology Requirements/Specifications:

To make the most out of your PrintLab experience, you’ll need access to desktop FFF 3D printers, PLA filament and computers with internet access. While PrintLab can be used with a single 3D printer by setting constraints on model sizes, limiting iterations, and encouraging group work, multiple machines are recommended for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.

Favourite printer brands include Bambu Lab and Prusa Research.

In terms of software to design 3D models, you can either use Tinkercad (for beginners) or Fusion (for intermediate-advanced users). Both options are developed by Autodesk and are completely free for education and personal use.