Improved Student Learning through Active Learning and Immediate Student Feedback
Research (91)
The project is designed to evaluate and refine a sketch recognition tutoring system for trusses that enhances engineering learning by providing intelligent and immediate feedback. Through a study of student learning and the revision of the software based on the study's findings, this work provides a springboard for future development of tutoring systems for a much wider array of engineering courses including, but not limited to thermal sciences and a range of other mechanics-based classes. The software actively engages the student while providing guidance and develops a cognitive scaffold between concepts students understand to deeper levels of learning. Most professors are aware of the importance of open-ended problems for deepening learning and enhancing innovation skills. Intellectual Merit: The STRAT (Sketched-Truss Recognition and Analysis Tool) facilitates the incorporation of open-ended design problems into large traditional classes. STRAT software is designed to provide a more efficient means to teach engineers basic mechanics concepts thus allowing study time to be more productive and additional material to be added to the curriculum. Users draw diagrams as they would naturally and thus there is no steep learning curve associated with this tool unlike tool palette or other CAD-based programs. Furthermore, very minimal hardware is required; a standard computer and mouse is adequate. The project has two goals. The first goal is to measure the effects on student learning of the STRAT software through both quantitative and qualitative methods. The second goal of the project is to refine and improve the STRAT software based on experimental data, customer needs collected from students and professors, and on user feedback. To increase external validity and utility, STRAT is being tested in a classroom setting.
Broader Impact: The STRAT software has the potential to profoundly increase student learning and the efficiency of the instructional process. The STRAT tool can be used at a variety of institutions of higher learning ranging from small classrooms at teaching focused schools to public research focused universities with very large classrooms. Visual aids are common in civil and mechanical engineering but active sketching and feedback provides additional benefits. Providing immediate feedback improves learning by eliminating the possibility of reinforcing inaccurate assumptions produced by the learner. The sketch tool also encourages users to actively process the information instead of passively viewing visual representations. The task of free-sketching encourages and demands, that learners actively construct their knowledge leading to higher levels of comprehension and longer term learning. This approach to learning is also particularly suited for the sciences as it encourages the creation of new knowledge rather than the memorization of previously established information. Furthermore, there are plans for the STRAT software to be freely available on a website and results broadly disseminated through conferences and journals.
Mechanix is a sketch recognition tutoring system for trusses which enhances engineering learning by providing intelligent and immediate feedback (see screen shots). It allows users to draw diagrams as they would naturally and thus there is almost no learning curve for this tool unlike most tool palettes or other CAD-based programs. Mechanix can be used with tablet screens or standard mice. Mechanix facilitates the incorporation of open-ended design problems into large traditional classes by providing instant feedback regarding the correctness of students’ individual steps as well as the final solution. Many reports such as the Engineer of 2020 and Rising Above the Gathering Storm explicitly describe the need for engineers with deep technical knowledge while also adding a variety of additional skills to an already packed curriculum. While most professors are aware of the importance of open-ended problems for their ability to deepen learning and enhance innovation skills, instructors tend to limit their use due to the excessive time commitments required for grading. Mechanix automatically provide instant feedback to the students and the instructor interface being developed will provide professors with knowledge of the concepts their students are struggling with. Mechanix can automatically grade creative design problems such as designing a two-dimensional truss that is approximately four and a half inches long and supports two pound. MOOCs and other online homework system are rapidly changing engineering education by capitalizing on the scalability of online systems. While online homework systems provide great benefits, a growing concern among engineering educators is that students are losing the critical art of sketching and the ability to take a real system and reduce it to an accurate, but simplified free-body diagram (FBD). Some online systems allow the drag and drop of forces onto FBDs, they do not allow the FBDs to be sketched, which a vital part of the learning process and capitalizes on multiple cognitive channels. Mechanix allows for student-sketched solutions to be entered and automatically graded. Using artificial intelligence, Mechanix can determine not only the component shapes and features of the diagram, but the relationships between those shapes and features. Because Mechanix is domain specific, it can use those relationships to determine whether a student’s work is correct, but more importantly, why it is incorrect. Mechanix is then able to provide immediate (formative) feedback to the students without providing answers, which enriches the educational experience. The evaluations have shown that Mechanix is as effective as the traditional paper and pencil homework for teaching truss analysis but allows for automatic grading reducing required teaching resources and costs for grading. Focus groups with students who used the program have revealed that they believe that Mechanix enhances their learned and that they are highly engaged while using it.
