Evaluation of a Puzzle-based Virtual Platform for Improving Spatial Visualization Skills in Engineering Freshmen

Being able to spatially visualize and mentally rotate is a key skill necessary to succeed in graphics and subsequent engineering courses. Recent research has focused on methods to develop Spatial Visualization (SV) skills in engineering students, as it is a key skill to succeed in most of the STEM fields. However, in most of the engineering schools, the instructors find it very difficult to develop keen SV skills in students. The major factors contributing to this challenge include, but not limited to the huge class sizes, limited time to teach the material, lack of effective demonstrations and the unavailability of feasible hands-on activities. With the funding from the National Science Foundation, the authors are developing a puzzle-based active learning platform called “Student Assistant for Visualization in Engineering” (SAVE) for developing SV skills in engineering freshman. In the preliminary version of this learning platform, the students are asked to complete a quiz with tasks requiring SV skills. For any incorrect answer, they are provided with automated hints about their mistakes. These hints are expected to help them in solving the following tasks. If they commit three mistakes, the quiz locks itself and creates a report on their performance thus far. The students are able to go back and restart the quiz. The student’s target is to complete the quiz with a minimum number of attempts. In the study reported here, the effectiveness of this game platform in conveying essential concepts of engineering graphics is investigated. Firstly, SAVE is implemented in a smaller classroom and the student feedback is collected. Then, it is implemented in a freshmen graphics class in a large public university in the west coast. The performance of the participating students in a follow-up exam is compared against that of a control group. The results show that the use of SAVE improves students’ conceptual understanding compared to a control group, as measured by the scores in the follow-up exam. Introduction & Motivation Pictorial representation of three-dimensional objects is one of the oldest forms of communication. Sketches and images have been a very popular medium to communicate ideas and to store information for future use. The area that deals with two-dimensional pictorial representations and communication of information is called “graphics” [1]. The area of graphics have been evolved from very crude hand sketches to the currently used formal engineering drawings [2]. For engineers, the graphics language using lines and symbols to represent information has been proved to be more effective than verbal communication [3]. According to Bertoline, Wiebe, Miller, and Mohler [4], 92% of the communication in engineering is based on graphics whereas the remaining 8% is shared by verbal and mathematical communication. This popularity itself calls for the inclusion of a well-developed graphics curriculum in our engineering schools. In addition, research has shown the role of graphics education in developing well-balanced human citizens [5, 6]. Spatial visualization (SV) skill is an essential quality for being able to communicate graphically. Spatial visualization skill can be defined as the ability to mentally understand, visualize, rotate and manipulate geometric objects [1, 7-9]. Literature shows that keen SV skills is an indicator of achievement in STEM fields [10]. These skills have been demonstrated as a key factor for the success in 84 careers [11]. In addition, a 2010 report on the role of women in STEM fields identifies that SV skills are important for the success of women students in STEM related fields [12]. The report also states that women and underrepresented minorities in STEM have comparatively lower SV skills. Development of students’ SV skills has been a major challenge in engineering graphics communications courses. This is a hard skill to acquire and the instructional methods being employed have a great effect on the SV skills [12]. This is the major reason for the recent interest in the research community on the methods to improve SV skills and mental rotation abilities in students [1, 12-16]. For example, a recent study recommended the use of tangible models as an effective technique to develop visualization skills [3]. Similarly, Sorby developed a short course on SV skills which has proven to be effective in improving student GPAs in a wide range of STEM courses [16]. This study was conducted at Michigan Tech and the results showed that only 42% of students in engineering with low SV skills graduated in their major. However, after attending the short SV skill course, the retention rate of students with originally low SV skills increased to 64% (an increase of 52%). Currently the materials developed by Sorby [17] have been used widely in the United States [15]. There are multiple factors that influence the engineering graphics instruction at engineering departments. In most engineering schools, graphics is taught as a freshman course and they have comparatively huge class sizes. The unavailability of proper demonstrations and educational technologies to assist in graphics classrooms is a major factor of concern. Mainly the change of spatial dimension between 2-D and 3-D is a confusing factor for many students. When a spatial dimension change and visual rotations are together required to effectively visualize an object, it becomes a hard task for our students. The limited class time is another important factor as the instructor is unable to provide the immediate help that the students need. Since these courses are offered the first semester they attend a university, the students often are not mature enough to admit that they need additional help outside the classroom. Because of the same reason, many of them do not follow up during office or tutoring hours for additional assistance. In an effort to improve the SV skills of engineering freshmen, the authors employed a rapid feedback cycle [29] based on the mastery approach. In this process, the instructor provides very rapid feedback on assignments (within two working days after submission) and they have an opportunity to resubmit the assignment to gain additional points. During the initial feedback, the mistakes are not completely explained to the students, but hints about their mistakes are provided. In a controlled experiment conducted at Tuskegee University, it was observed that the students who resubmitted their work based on the feedback improved their SV skills, as measured by the Purdue Visualization Test (PVT), compared to a group of students who did not. However, this approach requires a significant time investment from the instructor, which is a major drawback. Building on this previous work, the authors developed a quiz on SV that can provide automated feedback in the form of hints to students. The target is to establish the rapid feedback cycle without the additional time investment from the part of the instructor. Eventually, this platform is expected to be a place where students can go for additional practice and feedback on their work. Currently, SAVE has a quiz format with automated conceptual feedback. This paper reports the pilot implementation of this quiz in two universities and the results from the implementation.