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1. Unequal Impacts of Augmented Reality on Learning and Collaboration During Robot Programming with Peers

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3432944  

   Radu, Iulian; Hv, Vivek; Schneider, Bertrand (January 2021, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction)

   null (Ed.)

   Augmented reality (AR) applications are growing in popularity in educational settings. While the effects of AR experiences on learning have been widely studied, there is relatively less research on understanding the impact of AR on the dynamics of co-located collaborative learning, specifically in the context of novices programming robots. Educational robotics are a powerful learning context because they engage students with problem solving, critical thinking, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) concepts, and collaboration skills. However, such collaborations can suffer due to students having unequal access to resources or dominant peers. In this research we investigate how augmented reality impacts learning and collaboration while peers engage in robot programming activities. We use a mixed methods approach to measure how participants are learning, manipulating resources, and engaging in problem solving activities with peers. We investigate how these behaviors are impacted by the presence of augmented reality visualizations, and by participants? proximity to resources. We find that augmented reality improved overall group learning and collaboration. Detailed analysis shows that AR strongly helps one participant more than the other, by improving their ability to learn and contribute while remaining engaged with the robot. Furthermore, augmented reality helps both participants maintain a common ground and balance contributions during problem solving activities. We discuss the implications of these results for designing AR and non-AR collaborative interfaces. 

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2. Work in Progress: Promoting the Transfer of Math Skills to Engineering Statics

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--44334  

   De_Rosa, Alexander; Reed, Teri; Arndt, Angela (June 2023, ASEE Conferences)

   Students often face difficulties in transferring concepts, knowledge and skills between their courses. This difficulty is especially true of the fundamental math and science courses that are often taught outside the major of the student and without engineering context. At the same time, graduating engineers are moving into an increasingly interdisciplinary workplace that values the ability to work broadly across a range of contexts. More work is needed to better prepare students to adapt their knowledge and skills to new situations and to demonstrate how the various courses and concepts within their curricula relate. In this study, we ask students, teaching assistants and faculty to “think aloud” through their solution to a statics problem that requires mathematical knowledge to be transferred in order to be solved. Two faculty, two teaching assistants and seven undergraduate students are interviewed as they think aloud through the problem. Interview transcripts and solutions to the statics problem are then examined for themes and patterns in responses in order to draw conclusions about the challenges different populations face in transferring knowledge and solving such problems. Observations indicated that students could apply simple integration skills to find the area of a shape when given a curve describing its shape, but could not use integration to find the centroid. The participants did however recall being taught how to calculate centroids in the past and discussed a lack of usage of this skill causing their inability to recall it correctly. Student participants in general displayed simple approaches to problem solving based on reading the problem statement rather than following an engineering approach starting with governing equations. A potential barrier to problem solving success was identified in the varying symbols used by different research participants which could lead to a lack of understanding if these symbols are not clearly explained and defined in a classroom setting. Future work will further examine these themes, as well as developing prompts and activities to promote knowledge transfer and problem solving success. 

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3. Implementing Collaborative Online Lab Experiences to Facilitate Active Learning

   Tcheslavski, GV; Yoo, J; Sayil, S (June 2024, ASEE)

   Laboratory experience is among the key components in engineering education. It is highly instrumental and plays a significant role in students’ knowledge building, application, and distribution. Learning in laboratories is interactive and often collaborative. On the other hand, students, who learn engineering through online mechanisms, may face challenges with labs, which were frequently documented during the recent pandemic. To address such challenges, innovative online lab learning modules were developed, and learning strategies were implemented in five courses in electrical engineering, Circuits I, Electronics I, Electronics II, Signals and Systems, and Embedded System, through which students gain solid foundation before advancing to senior design projects. The two main incorporated strategies were Open-Ended lab design and Teamwork implementation. Open-Ended lab modules using a lab-in-a-box approach allow students solving lab problems with multiple approaches fostering problem solving both independently and collaboratively. This innovative lab design promotes problem solving at various cognitive levels. It is better suited for concept exploration and collaborative lab learning environments as opposed to the traditional lab works with a prescribed approach leading students to follow certain procedures that may lack the problem exploration stage. Additionally, course instructors formed online lab groups, so that students were sharing the problem-solving process – from ideas formation to solutions – with their peers. To evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented lab strategies, students in the participating courses were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Both assignment grades and students' feedback via surveys were used to evaluate students' learning. Participants in the control group were learning in labs through the materials that were aligned with core concepts by following predetermined procedures. Students in the experimental group learned through inquiry-based lab materials that required them to work in teams by integrating core concepts together to find a solution and while following one of potentially many approaches. To maximize the online lab learning effect and to replicate the contemporary industry, commerce, and research practices, instructor-structured cooperative learning strategies were applied along with pre-lab simulations and instructional videos. This paper showcases the outcomes of our 2nd year implementation of active learning laboratory strategies on the mixed population of online and face-to-face students. We observed that students in the experimental group generally outperformed their counterparts in labs and showed significantly higher results in the assignments addressing more advanced concept understanding and applications (grand average of 88.3% vs. 66.3%). Surveys also indicated that students saw the benefits of collaboration with Open-Ended lab modules not only for learning concepts, but also for improving their communication skills. Students were able to collaborate on lab problems through various communication tools, such as course Learning Management System (LMS) and mobile apps forming online learning communities. We believe that that the implementation of open-ended collaborative laboratory strategies can assist students in cultivating a deeper comprehension, fostering self-confidence, and refining their critical thinking abilities, all while strengthening their sense of inclusion within the field of engineering. 

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4. Assessment of Metacognitive Skills in Design and Manufacturing

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--34191  

   Elliott, L; Aqlan, F.; Zhao, R.; Janney, M. (June 2020, ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   Metacognition is the understanding of your own knowledge including what knowledge you do not have and what knowledge you do have. This includes knowledge of strategies and regulation of one’s own cognition. Studying metacognition is important because higher-order thinking is commonly used, and problem-solving skills are positively correlated with metacognition. A positive previous disposition to metacognition can improve problem-solving skills. Metacognition is a key skill in design and manufacturing, as teams of engineers must solve complex problems. Moreover, metacognition increases individual and team performance and can lead to more original ideas. This study discusses the assessment of metacognitive skills in engineering students by having the students participate in hands-on and virtual reality activities related to design and manufacturing. The study is guided by two research questions: (1) do the proposed activities affect students’ metacognition in terms of monitoring, awareness, planning, self-checking, or strategy selection, and (2) are there other components of metacognition that are affected by the design and manufacturing activities? The hypothesis is that the participation in the proposed activities will improve problem-solving skills and metacognitive awareness of the engineering students. A total of 34 undergraduate students participated in the study. Of these, 32 were male and 2 were female students. All students stated that they were interested in pursuing a career in engineering. The students were divided into two groups with the first group being the initial pilot run of the data. In this first group there were 24 students, in the second group there were 10 students. The groups’ demographics were nearly identical to each other. Analysis of the collected data indicated that problem-solving skills contribute to metacognitive skills and may develop first in students before larger metacognitive constructs of awareness, monitoring, planning, self-checking, and strategy selection. Based on this, we recommend that the problem-solving skills and expertise in solving engineering problems should be developed in students before other skills emerge or can be measured. While we are sure that the students who participated in our study have awareness as well as the other metacognitive skills in reading, writing, science, and math, they are still developing in relation to engineering problems. 

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5. The Affordance of Computer-Supportive Collaborative Learning in a Dynamics Course

   Lee, Y. (July 2021, Zone 1 Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education)

   null (Ed.)

   Over the past two decades, educators have used computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) to integrate technology with pedagogy to improve student engagement and learning outcomes. Researchers have also explored the diverse affordances of CSCL, its contributions to engineering instruction, and its effectiveness in K-12 STEM education. However, the question of how students use CSCL resources in undergraduate engineering classrooms remains largely unexplored. This study examines the affordances of a CSCL environment utilized in a sophomore dynamics course with particular attention given to the undergraduate engineering students’ use of various CSCL resources. The resources include a course lecturebook, instructor office hours, a teaching assistant help room, online discussion board, peer collaboration, and demonstration videos. This qualitative study uses semi-structured interview data collected from nine mechanical engineering students (four women and five men) who were enrolled in a dynamics course at a large public research university in Eastern Canada. The interviews focused on the individual student’s perceptions of the school, faculty, students, engineering courses, and implemented CSCL learning environment. The thematic analysis was conducted to analyze the transcribed interviews using a qualitative data analysis software (Nvivo). The analysis followed a six step process: (1) reading interview transcripts multiple times and preliminary in vivo codes; (2) conducting open coding by coding interesting or salient features of the data; (3) collecting codes and searching for themes; (4) reviewing themes and creating a thematic map; (5) finalizing themes and their definitions; and (6) compiling findings. This study found that the students’ use of CSCL resources varied depending on the students’ personal preferences, as well as their perceptions of the given resource’s value and its potential to enhance their learning. For example, the dynamics lecturebook, which had been redesigned to encourage problem solving and note-taking, fostered student collaborative problem solving with their peers. In contrast, the professor’s example video solutions had much more of an influence on students’ independent problem-solving processes. The least frequently used resource was the course’s online discussion forum, which could be used as a means of communication. The findings reveal how computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments enable engineering students to engage in multiple learning opportunities with diverse and flexible resources to both address and to clarify their personal learning needs. This study strongly recommends engineering instructors adapt a CSCL environment for implementation in their own unique classroom context. 

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