2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Accelerated Learning and Assessment in Engineering Mechanics: Designing an Interactive Tool to Support Students' Learning

Presented at NSF Grantees: Student Learning 2

Repeated deliberate practice in problem-solving practices is known to be beneficial in increasing students’ overall understanding of targeted concepts. Additionally, when students receive frequent formative feedback, they are able to identify problematic areas of their reasoning and can correct their underlying cognitive frames of reference. However, many undergraduate engineering courses are not designed to provide students with repeated practice and targeted feedback by use of educational interventions. This project was designed to: 1) iteratively develop the innovative problem delivery and assessment system and evaluate its effectiveness in meeting specific learning and assessment goals in engineering mechanics. 2) systematically study how this technology-rich problem-solving interface can enhance the learning, teaching, and assessment of complex knowledge, and 3) critically evaluate opportunities and barriers to scaling and transferring the innovation across educational contexts. By focusing on the development of strong analytical problem-solving skills characterized by rich conceptual knowledge, this project directly responds to demands from both industry and the federal government for colleges and universities to develop complex problem solvers for the workforce.

Overall, this project aims to assist engineering faculty and students through the development of an open-access problem-solving interface that will accelerate learning and enhance assessment, which along with a growing body of practice exercises, could be widely adopted in engineering mechanics education. The project seeks to develop an interactive online system for solving problems in introductory engineering mechanics courses for an undergraduate degree program. Our system aims to provide a feedback-based, exploratory environment for students to work on different problem instances and variations to explore key concepts of mathematical problem solving through developing equations for a target solution. This poster will present the current implementation of our system and discuss the different features for problem solving, feedback, and tracking of student activity and progress.

Authors

Dr. Nicole P. Pitterson http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9221-1574 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Nicole is an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Prior to joining VT, Dr. Pitterson was a postdoctoral scholar at Oregon State University. She holds a PhD in Engineering Education from Purdue University and other degrees in Manufacturing Engineering from Western Illinois University and a B.Sc. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Technology, Jamaica. Her research interests are exploring students' disciplinary identity through engagement with knowledge, curriculum design, assessment and evaluation and teaching for conceptual understanding.
Dr. Jacob R. Grohs Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Jacob Grohs, PhD is Director of the Center for Educational Networks and Impacts at Virginia Tech and Associate Professor of Engineering Education. His primary research interests focus on systems thinking, multi-stakeholder partnerships, and collaborative change. Grohs is an NSF CAREER Awardee and has served as PI/co-PI for several interdisciplinary and multi-party educational research grants.
Prof. David A. Dillard http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2903-9318 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

David Dillard is the Adhesive and Sealant Science Professor in the Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics Department at Virginia Tech. He has worked extensively in the field of adhesive bonding, having experience in structural adhesives for aerospace, autom
Dr. Sneha Patel Davison Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Mr. Todd P. Shuba http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1991-3814 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Todd P. Shuba is a New Horizons Graduate Scholar in the College of Engineering and a Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant in the Department of Engineering Education at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. His research interests include transfer of learning, collaborative learning, and student motivation and engagement. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Engineering with a concentration in Environmental and Ecological Engineering and a minor in Mechanical Engineering, as well as a Master of Science in Education with a concentration in Educational Psychology and Research Methodology, from Purdue University-West Lafayette.
Prof. Cliff Shaffer Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Dr. Shaffer received his PhD in Computer Science from University of Maryland, College Park in 1986. He is currently Professor of Computer Science at Virginia Tech, where he has been since 1987. He directs the AlgoViz and OpenDSA projects, whose goals resp
Mr. Arinjoy Basak Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Arinjoy Basak is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He obtained his Bachelors in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur in 2016, and his Master's in Computer Science from Virginia Tech in 2019.
Mr. Jianqiang Zhang Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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