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1. Attitudes Toward and Usage of Animations in an Interactive Textbook for Material and Energy Balances

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--36728  

   Stone, Sidney; Liberatore, Matthew (January 2021, ASEE Annual Meeting)

   null (Ed.)

   Attitudes Toward and Usage of Animations in an Interactive Textbook for Material and Energy Balances Abstract The concept of active learning or “learning by doing” is applied to animations within an interactive textbook in this contribution. A Material and Energy Balance (MEB) course for undergraduate chemical engineering students has generated large data sets by using an interactive textbook from zyBooks. MEB is a foundational course that includes new terminology, the basic principles of mass and energy conservation, and tools for problem solving. Here, outside of class engagement is measured using student views of multi-step animations that introduce MEB concepts in small chunks. Students usage of the interactive textbook have been logged for several years and reading participation was measured as high as 99% by median. Within the reading participation data are the clicks to start, complete, and re-watch over 100 animations across the book, which has not been explored in detail. This paper addresses research questions specifically related to animations. First, do students complete viewing an interactive animation and what is the rate of re-watch? Next, do certain animations gather re-watch views across several cohorts? Also, what is students’ understanding and attitude about using animations in their engineering education? We will administer pre- and post-surveys to understand students’ interest in chemical engineering as well as animation use. 

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2. Computational Illusion Knitting

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3658231  

   Zhu, Amy; Mei, Yuxuan; Jones, Benjamin; Tatlock, Zachary; Schulz, Adriana (July 2024, ACM Transactions on Graphics)

   Illusion-knit fabrics reveal distinct patterns or images depending on the viewing angle. Artists have manually achieved this effect by exploiting microgeometry, i.e., small differences in stitch heights. However, past work in computational 3D knitting does not model or exploit designs based on stitch height variation. This paper establishes a foundation for exploring illusion knitting in the context of computational design and fabrication. We observe that the design space is highly constrained, elucidate these constraints, and derive strategies for developing effective, machine-knittable illusion patterns. We partially automate these strategies in a new interactive design tool that reduces difficult patterning tasks to familiar image editing tasks. Illusion patterns also uncover new fabrication challenges regarding mixed colorwork and texture; we describe new algorithms for mitigating fabrication failures and ensuring high-quality knit results. 

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3. Interactive Tools for Teaching Fourier Transforms

   https://doi.org/10.35459/tbp.2019.000102  

   Baiz, Carlos R. (January 2020, The Biophysicist)

   Fourier transforms (FT) are universal in chemistry, physics, and biology. Despite FTs being a core component of multiple experimental techniques, undergraduate courses typically approach FTs from a mathematical perspective, leaving students with a lack of intuition on how an FT works. Here, I introduce interactive teaching tools for upper-level undergraduate courses and describe a practical lesson plan for FTs. The materials include a computer program to capture video from a webcam and display the original images side-by-side with the corresponding plot in the Fourier domain. Several patterns are included to be printed on paper and held up to the webcam as input. During the lesson, students are asked to predict the features observed in the FT and then place the patterns in front of the webcam to test their predictions. This interactive approach enables students with limited mathematical skills to achieve a certain level of intuition for how FTs translate patterns from real space into the corresponding Fourier space. 

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4. A Study of Class Meetings in VR: Student Experiences of Attending Lectures and of Giving a Project Presentation

   https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.648619  

   Yoshimura, Andrew; Borst, Christoph W. (May 2021, Frontiers in Virtual Reality)

   null (Ed.)

   We study student experiences of social VR for remote instruction, with students attending class from home. The study evaluates student experiences when: (1) viewing remote lectures with VR headsets, (2) viewing with desktop displays, (3) presenting with VR headsets, and (4) reflecting on several weeks of VR-based class attendance. Students rated factors such as presence, social presence, simulator sickness, communication methods, avatar and application features, and tradeoffs with other remote approaches. Headset-based viewing and presenting produced higher presence than desktop viewing, but had less-clear impact on overall experience and on most social presence measures. We observed higher attentional allocation scores for headset-based presenting than for both viewing methods. For headset VR, there were strong negative correlations between simulator sickness (primarily reported as general discomfort) and ratings of co-presence, overall experience, and some other factors. This suggests that comfortable users experienced substantial benefits of headset viewing and presenting, but others did not. Based on the type of virtual environment, student ratings, and comments, reported discomfort appears related to physical ergonomic factors or technical problems. Desktop VR appears to be a good alternative for uncomfortable students, and students report that they prefer a mix of headset and desktop viewing. We additionally provide insight from students and a teacher about possible improvements for VR class technology, and we summarize student opinions comparing viewing and presenting in VR to other remote class technologies. 

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5. K-12 Engineering and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS): A Network Visualization and Analysis

   Reitsma, René F.; Hoglund, Brian Gordon; Chaker, Dua; Marks, Andrea Marks; Soltys, Michael. (June 2020, 2020 ASEE Annual Conference and Expo)

   We present an interactive network visualization of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and its coverage by collections of aligned curriculum. The visualization presents an alternative to the usual presentation of the NGSS as a set of linked tables. Users can view entire grade bands, search for or drill down to the level of individual NGSS standards or curricular items, or display groups of standards across grade bands. NGSS-aligned curriculum collections can be switched on and off to visually explore their NGSS coverage. Viewing the NGSS and associated curriculum this way facilitates navigating the NGSS and can help with assessment of alignments as lacking or anomalous. Modeling the NGSS as a network also allows for the computation of network metrics to provide insight into core characteristics of the network. It also provides for detecting anomalies and unexpected patterns. 

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