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1. Freehand Sketching on Smartphones for Teaching Spatial Visualization

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--32859  

   Van Den Einde, Lelli; Delson, Nathan; Cowan, Elizabeth (June 2019, 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   null (Ed.)

   Mobile devices are becoming a more common part of the education experience. Students can access their devices at any time to perform assignments or review material. Mobile apps can have the added advantage of being able to automatically grade student work and provide instantaneous feedback. However, numerous challenges remain in implementing effective mobile educational apps. One challenge is the small screen size of smartphones, which was a concern for a spatial visualization training app where students sketch isometric and orthographic drawings. This app was originally developed for iPads, but the wide prevalence of smartphones led to porting the software to iPhone and Android phones. The sketching assignments on a smartphone screen required more frequent zooming and panning, and one of the hypotheses of this study was that the educational effectiveness on smartphones was the same as on the larger screen sizes using iPad tablets. The spatial visualization mobile sketching app was implemented in a college freshman engineering graphics course to teach students how to sketch orthographic and isometric assignments. The app provides automatic grading and hint feedback to help students when they are stuck. Students in this pilot were assigned sketching problems as homework using their personal devices. Students were administered a pre- and post- spatial visualization test (PSVT-R, a reliable, well-validated instrument) to assess learning gains. The trial analysis focuses on students who entered the course with limited spatial visualization experience as identified based on a score of ≤70% on the PSVT:R since students entering college with low PSVT:R scores are at higher risk of dropping out of STEM majors. Among these low-performing students, those who used the app showed significant progress: (71%) raised their test scores above 70% bringing them out of the at-risk range for dropping out of engineering. While the PSVT:R test has been well validated, there are benefits to developing alternative methods of assessing spatial visualization skills. We developed an assembly pre- and post- test based upon a timed Lego™ exercise. At the start of the quarter, students were timed to see how long it would take them to build small lego sets using only visual instructions. Students were timed again on a different lego set after completion of the spatial visualization app. One benefit of the test was that it illustrated to the engineering students a skill that could be perceived as more relevant to their careers, and thus possibly increased their motivation for spatial visualization training. In addition, it may be possible to adapt the assembly test to elementary school grade levels where the PSVT:R test would not be suitable. Preliminary results show that the average lego build times decreased significantly after using the mobile app, indicating an improvement in students’ spatial reasoning skills. A comparison will also be done between normalized completion times on the assembly test and the PSVT:R tests in order to see how the assembly test compares to the “gold standard”. In addition to the PSVT-R instrument, a survey was conducted to evaluate student usage and their impressions of the app. Students found the app engaging, easy to use, and something they would do whenever they had “a free moment”. 95% of the students recommended the app to a friend if they are struggling with spatial visualization skills. This paper will describe the implementation of the mobile spatial visualization sketching app in a large college classroom, and highlight the app’s impact in increasing self-efficacy in spatial visualization and sketching 

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2. Neural efficiency and spatial task difficulty: A road forward to mapping students’ neural engagement in spatial cognition

   Snowden, Ariel W.; Warren, Christopher M.; Goodridge, Wade; Fang, Ning (January 2021, Engineering design graphics journal)

   The current study examined the neural correlates of spatial rotation in eight engineering undergraduates. Mastering engineering graphics requires students to mentally visualize in 3D and mentally rotate parts when developing 2D drawings. Students’ spatial rotation skills play a significant role in learning and mastering engineering graphics. Traditionally, the assessment of students’ spatial skills involves no measurements of neural activity during student performance of spatial rotation tasks. We used electroencephalography (EEG) to record neural activity while students performed the Revised Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Visualization of Rotations (Revised PSVT:R). The two main objectives were to 1) determine whether high versus low performers on the Revised PSVT:R show differences in EEG oscillations and 2) identify EEG oscillatory frequency bands sensitive to item difficulty on the Revised PSVT:R.  Overall performance on the Revised PSVT:R determined whether participants were considered high or low performers: students scoring 90% or higher were considered high performers (5 students), whereas students scoring under 90% were considered low performers (3 students). Time-frequency analysis of the EEG data quantified power in several oscillatory frequency bands (alpha, beta, theta, gamma, delta) for comparison between low and high performers, as well as between difficulty levels of the spatial rotation problems.   Although we did not find any significant effects of performance type (high, low) on EEG power, we observed a trend in reduced absolute delta and gamma power for hard problems relative to easier problems. Decreases in delta power have been reported elsewhere for difficult relative to easy arithmetic calculations, and attributed to greater external attention (e.g., attention to the stimuli/numbers), and consequently, reduced internal attention (e.g., mentally performing the calculation). In the current task, a total of three spatial objects are presented. An example rotation stimulus is presented, showing a spatial object before and after rotation. A target stimulus, or spatial object before rotation is then displayed. Students must choose one of five stimuli (multiple choice options) that indicates the correct representation of the object after rotation. Reduced delta power in the current task implies that students showed greater attention to the example and target stimuli for the hard problem, relative to the moderate and easy problems. Therefore, preliminary findings suggest that students are less efficient at encoding the target stimuli (external attention) prior to mental rotation (internal attention) when task difficulty increases.  Our findings indicate that delta power may be used to identify spatial rotation items that are especially challenging for students. We may then determine the efficacy of spatial rotation interventions among engineering education students, using delta power as an index for increases in internal attention (e.g., increased delta power). Further, in future work, we will also use eye-tracking to assess whether our intervention decreases eye fixation (e.g., time spent viewing) toward the target stimulus on the Revised PSVT:R. By simultaneously using EEG and eye-tracking, we may identify changes in internal attention and encoding of the target stimuli that are predictive of improvements in spatial rotation skills among engineering education students.  

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3. Sketching, Assessment, and Persistence in Spatial Visualization Training On a Touchscreen

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--30968  

   Delson, Nathan; Van Den Einde, Lelli (June 2018, 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   null (Ed.)

   Spatial visualization training has been shown to increase GPAs and graduation rates in science, technology and math. Furthermore, prior research has correlated sketching on paper to improvement on the standardized spatial visualization test PSVT:R. To take advantage of touchscreen technology, an App, in which students draw orthographic and isometric assignments, was developed for spatial visualization training. Students draw on the touchscreen and then submit their sketch to be graded automatically. If the sketch is incorrect, the students are provided with the option to try again or get customized guidance from the app. This allows students to work independently and get immediate feedback. In 2014, a trial using the App with college engineering students showed that it increased students’ performance on the PSVT:R. The 2014 trial also showed that student persistence, as measured by the number of times they tried a sketch again without asking for help, correlated to increases in the PSVT:R. Since 2014, the App was modified significantly. The assignments were rewritten to take advantage of the touchscreen interface, and persistence was encouraged using gamification and by providing varying levels of guidance. In 2017, two trials were conducted with college engineering students; an elective class (n=32) and a required class (n=137). Overall the persistence metric increased from 40% in 2014 to 77% in 2017. The overall gains on the PSVT:R increased from 7% to 9%. However, much larger gains occurred among students who entered the class with low PSVT:R scores (70% and below). These students are considered “at-risk” in terms of low graduation rate due to low spatial visualization ability. In 2014, 23% of these at-risk students improved to the point of moving out of the at-risk category. In 2017 this percentage increased to 82% and 67%. This paper describes the modifications to the App that led to the successful trials in 2017. In O=one of the 2017 trials , the app was implemented as homework, thereby not taking up classroom lecture time, which further eases the incorporation of spatial visualization training into a crowded curriculum. 

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4. Teaching Spatial Visualization: A Controlled Trial of a Touchscreen App Implemented as Homework

   https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2018.8659068  

   Hoople, Gordon D; Cowan, Elizabeth; Van Den Einde, Lelli; Tara, Jon; Delson, Nathan (October 2018, Frontiers in education)

   null (Ed.)

   This Research to Practice work-in-progress paper examines the impact of eGrove Education’s Spatial Vis touchscreen application for teaching spatial visualization. Research has shown that competency with spatial visualization is correlated with success in engineering, but few engineering programs explicitly teach this skill. In this paper, we describe a controlled trial (n=55) in which the app was assigned as homework for the experimental group, but no additional lecture time was dedicated to spatial visualization training. Our analysis focuses on students who entered the course with limited spatial visualization experience as identified based on a score of ≤70% on the PSVT:R (a reliable, well-validated instrument). Among these low- performing students, those who used the app showed remarkable progress – 8 of 13 (62%) raised their test scores above 70% compared to just 2 of 14 (14%) in the control group. Students in both the experimental and control groups showed statistically significant increases between the pre- and post-test scores (paired t-test), though the difference in the gains between the two groups was statistically insignificant as the study was underpowered. While larger trials will be needed, this work suggests that the Spatial Vis app is a promising intervention for training spatial visualization skills. 

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5. Scaffolding Spatial Abilities in Integral Calculus

   Davishahl, E.; Singleton, L.; Haskell, T.; Rupe, K.; Glen, L. (June 2022, 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   This NSF-IUSE exploration and design project began in fall 2018 and features cross-disciplinary collaboration between engineering, math, and psychology faculty to develop learning activities with hands-on models and manipulatives. We are exploring how best to design these activities to support learners’ development of conceptual understanding and representational competence in integral calculus and engineering statics, two foundational courses for most engineering majors. A second goal is to leverage the model-based activities to scaffold spatial skills development in the context of traditional course content. As widely reported in the literature, well-developed spatial abilities correlate with student success and persistence in many STEM majors. We provided calculus students in selected intervention sections taught by four instructors at three different community colleges with take-home model kits that they could reference for a series of asynchronous learning activities. Students in these sections completed the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Rotations (PSVT:R) in the first and last weeks of their course. We also administered the assessment in multiple control sections (no manipulatives) taught by the same faculty. This paper analyzes results from fall 2020 through fall 2021 to see if there is any difference between control and intervention sections for the courses as a whole and for demographic subgroups including female-identifying students and historically-underserved students of color. All courses were asynchronous online modality in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that students in intervention sections of calculus made slightly larger gains on the PSVT:R, but this result is not statistically significant as a whole or for any of the demographic subgroups considered. We also analyzed final course grades for differences between control and intervention sections and found no differences. We found no significant effect of the presence of the model-based activities leading to increased PSVT:R gains or improved course grades. We would not extend this conclusion to face-to-face implementation, however, due primarily to the compromises made to adapt the curriculum from in-person group learning to asynchronous individual work and inconsistent engagement of the online students with the modeling activities. 

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