Effective construction engineering and management education requires hands-on experiences that have not traditionally been offered in classroom settings. Physical building competitions like Solar Decathlon are valuable for providing experiential learning opportunities that may support tacit and explicit knowledge development among students, but they are often not available to all students due to funding and resource limitations. Less resource intensive teaching strategies, such as project based learning, can mimic the benefit of physical experiences by providing context to learning content. This paper reviews project based learning literature to identify trends in reported learning gains from the adoption of this strategy. Additionally, emerging technologies offer the ability to create low cost, immersive multimedia environments that may be able to support the types of learning targeted by physical design and construction experiences. Literature on multimedia learning theory is explored to identify opportunities for multimedia applications to facilitate learnings derived by physical educational contexts, but with the use of increasingly affordable multimedia strategies. This paper resulted in identifying six learning gains that have a theoretical potential to be facilitated using augmented reality and virtual reality technologies. The theoretical potential was deduced based on prior research on teaching strategies that provide real-world context to learning content. The authors of this paper propose using the identified learning gains as targets to specifically design implementation studies to verify this potential. The learning gains identified in the results section can be targeted and measured in future research when empirically validating the use of immersive technologies for construction education. The contribution of this work is in synthesizing the learning gains that future researchers should target based on evidence from prior research in related learning contexts.
more »
« less
Mixed Reality Multimedia Learning to Facilitate Learning Outcomes from Project Based Learning
Effective construction engineering and management education requires hands-on experiences that have not traditionally been offered in classroom settings. Physical building competitions like Solar Decathlon are valuable for providing experiential learning opportunities that may support tacit and explicit knowledge development among students, but they are often not available to all students due to funding and resource limitations. Less resource intensive teaching strategies, such as project based learning, can mimic the benefit of physical experiences by providing context to learning content. This paper reviews project based learning literature to identify trends in reported learning gains from the adoption of this strategy. Additionally, emerging technologies offer the ability to create low cost, immersive multimedia environments that may be able to support the types of learning targeted by physical design and construction experiences. Literature on multimedia learning theory is explored to identify opportunities for multimedia applications to facilitate learnings derived by physical educational contexts, but with the use of increasingly affordable multimedia strategies. This paper resulted in identifying six learning gains that have a theoretical potential to be facilitated using augmented reality and virtual reality technologies. The theoretical potential was deduced based on prior research on teaching strategies that provide real-world context to learning content. The authors of this paper propose using the identified learning gains as targets to specifically design implementation studies to verify this potential. The learning gains identified in the results section can be targeted and measured in future research when empirically validating the use of immersive technologies for construction education. The contribution of this work is in synthesizing the learning gains that future researchers should target based on evidence from prior research in related learning contexts.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1735804
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10277282
- Editor(s):
- Tang, Pingbo; Grau, David; Asmar, Mounir E.
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Construction Research Congress 2020: Computer Applications
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 153 to 161
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Engineering education aims to create a learning environment capable of developing vital engineering skill sets, preparing students to enter the workforce and succeed as future leaders. With all the rapid technological advancements, new engineering challenges continuously emerge, impeding the development of engineering skills. This insufficiency in developing the required skills resulted in high regression rates in students’ GPAs, resulting in industries reporting graduates’ unsatisfactory performance. From a pedagogical perspective, this problem is highly correlated with traditional learning methods that are inadequate for engaging students and improving their learning experience when adopted alone. Accordingly, educators have incorporated new learning methodologies to address the pre-defined problem and enhance the students’ learning experience. However, many of the currently adopted teaching methods still lack the potential to expose students to practical examples, and they are inefficient among engineering students, who tend to be active learners and prefer to use a variety of senses. To address this, our research team proposes integrating the technology of virtual reality (VR) into the laboratory work of engineering technology courses to improve the students’ learning experience and engagement. VR technology, an immersive high-tech media, was adopted to develop an interactive teaching module on hydraulic gripper designs in a VR construction-like environment. The module aims to expose engineering technology students to real-life applications by providing a more visceral experience than screen-based media through the generation of fully computer-simulated environments in which everything is digitized. This work presents the development and implementation of the VR construction lab module and the corresponding gripper designs. The virtual gripper models are developed using Oculus Virtual Reality (OVR) Metrics Tool for Unity, a Steam VR Overlay utility created to make visualizing the desktop in a VR setting simple and intuitive. The execution of the module comprises building the VR environment, designing and importing the gripper models, and creating a user-interface VR environment to visualize and interact with the model (gripper assembly/mechanism testing). Besides the visualization, manipulation, and interaction, the developed VR system allows for additional features like displaying technical information, guiding students throughout the assembly process, and other specialized options. Thus, the developed interactive VR module will serve as a perpetual mutable platform that can be readily adjusted to allow future add-ons to address future educational opportunities.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)There is a cohesive body of research on the effectiveness of problem-based learning (PBL) for a wide range of learner groups across different disciplines in engineering education. On the other hand, there is a growing interest in using immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) in engineering education. While there are many literature review articles on each of these subjects separately, there is a lack of review articles on the application of combined PBL-VR learning environments in engineering education. This paper provides an assessment of the applications and potential of implementing immersive technologies in a PBL setting to utilize the advantages of both paradigms. More specifically, this paper aims to provide insights related to two main questions: (1) where (in what disciplines/subjects) PBL and VR have been used together in engineering education? And, (2) how are VR and PBL integrated and used in engineering education? The first question is investigated by performing a bibliometric analysis of relevant papers published in the proceedings of previous ASEE annual conferences. The second question is explored by performing a literature review and classification of ASEE papers that discuss the use of VR in conjunction with PBL. Our findings reveal a gap between the application of integrated PBL and VR across different disciplines in engineering education. We also analyze the trends related to PBL and VR application in engineering education over time. Finally, we identify and propose future opportunities related to the combination of PBL and immersive technologies, including but not limited to immersive simulation-based learning (ISBL) and incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into immersive virtual/simulated learning environments used in engineering education.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)This research paper studies the challenges that mathematics faculty and graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) faced when moving active and collaborative calculus courses from in-person to virtual instruction. As part of a larger pedagogical change project (described below), the math department at a public Research-1 university began transitioning pre-calculus and calculus courses to an active and collaborative learning (ACL) format in Fall 2019. The change began with the introduction of collaborative worksheets in recitations which were led by GTAs and supported by undergraduate learning assistants (LAs). Students recitation periods collaboratively solving the worksheet problems on whiteboards. When COVID-19 forced the rapid transition to online teaching, these ACL efforts faced an array of challenges. Faculty and GTA reflections on the changes to teaching and learning provide insight into how instructional staff can be supported in implementing ACL across various modes of instruction. The calculus teaching change efforts discussed in this paper are part of an NSF-supported project that aims to make ACL the default method of instruction in highly enrolled gateway STEM courses across the institution. The theoretical framework for the project builds on existing work on grassroots change in higher education (Kezar and Lester, 2011) to study the effect of communities of practice on changing teaching culture. The project uses course-based communities of practice (Wenger, 1999) that include instructors, GTAs, and LAs working together to design and enact teaching change in the targeted courses alongside ongoing professional development for GTAs and LAs. Six faculty and five GTAs involved in the teaching change effort in mathematics were interviewed after the Spring 2020 semester ended. Interview questions focused on faculty and GTA experiences implementing active learning after the rapid transition to online teaching. A grounded coding scheme was used to identify common themes in the challenges faced by instructors and GTAs as they moved online and in the impacts of technology, LA support, and the department community of practice on the move to online teaching. Technology, including both access and capabilities, emerged as a common barrier to student engagement. A particular barrier was students’ reluctance to share video or participate orally in sessions that were being recorded, making group work more difficult than it had been in a physical classroom. In addition, most students lacked access to a tablet for freehand writing, presenting a significant hurdle for sharing mathematical notation when physical whiteboards were no longer an option. These challenges point to the importance of incorporating flexibility in active learning implementation and in the professional development that supports teaching changes toward active learning, since what is conceived for a collaborative physical classroom may be implemented in a much different environment. The full paper will present a detailed analysis of the data to better understand how faculty and GTA experiences in the transition to online delivery can inform planning and professional development as the larger institutional change effort moves forward both in mathematics and in other STEM fields.more » « less
-
Dawood, Nashwan ; Rahimian, Farzad P. ; Seyedzadeh, Saleh ; Sheikhkhoshkar, Moslem (Ed.)The growth in the adoption of sensing technologies in the construction industry has triggered the need for graduating construction engineering students equipped with the necessary skills for deploying the technologies. One obstacle to equipping students with these skills is the limited opportunities for hands-on learning experiences on construction sites. Inspired by opportunities offered by mixed reality, this paper presents the development of a holographic learning environment that can afford learners an experiential opportunity to acquire competencies for implementing sensing systems on construction projects. The interactive holographic learning environment is built upon the notions of competence-based and constructivist learning. The learning contents of the holographic learning environment are driven by characteristics of technical competencies identified from the results of an online survey, and content analysis of industry case studies. This paper presents a competency characteristics model depicting the key sensing technologies, applications and resources needed to facilitate the design of the holographic learning environment. A demonstrative scenario of the application of a virtual laser scanner for measuring volume of stockpiles is utilized to showcase the potential of the learning environment. A taxonomic model of the operational characteristics of the virtual laser scanner represented within the holographic learning environment is also presented. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by advancing immersive experiential learning discourses previously confined by technology. It opens a new avenue for both researchers and practitioners to further investigate the opportunities offered by mixed reality for future workforce development.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784482865.017
