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This research paper details a study investigating spatial visualization skills relation to design problem-solving for undergraduate engineering students. Design is outlined as one of the seven attributes that engineering students must demonstrate prior to their graduation as set out through the ABET guidelines. It is important to understand the factors that contribute to design capability to achieve this learning goal. Design problems by their nature are cognitive tasks and as such require problem solvers to draw both on learned knowledge and pertinent cognitive abilities for their solution. In the context of engineering design problem solving, spatial visualization is one such cognitive ability that likely plays a role. Previous research has demonstrated a link between spatial visualization and design. This work aims to advance on that research by exploring how spatial visualization relates to the design process enacted by undergraduate engineering students. There were two phases to data collection for this research. In the first phase, 127 undergraduate engineering students completed four spatial tests. In the second phase, 17 students returned to complete three design tasks. This paper will focus on one of these design tasks, the Ping Pong problem where individuals are asked to design a ping pong launcher to hit a target from a given distance at a specific height. A purposive sample of 9 first-year and 8 senior students were selected to engage in a think aloud protocol during the problemsolving task based on their spatial visualization skill levels (high vs. low). The think aloud protocol was used to assign pre-defined codes for design activity for each of the 17 participants. Through analysis of these codes, results indicated that there is an association between the spatial skills of students and the design processes/actions that they employ. These insights will be discussed relative to their potential influence on engineering education, specifically in developing design capability.
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Eye-Tracking Analysis of Problem-Solving Behavior in Design Tasks in Undergraduate Engineering: A Comparison of High and Low Spatial Visualizers
This research paper describes work performed at a large midwestern university in the U.S. examining the link between spatial skills and design performance. Spatial skills are vital to success in engineering education and their relation to efficient problem-solving is wellresearched. This study is part of a larger project focusing on understanding the link between spatial visualization skills and solving engineering design problems. In the current study, we made use of an eye-tracking device to determine the visual focus of participants while they solved an assigned design task. High and low spatial visualizers in undergraduate engineering were identified through Phase I testing. In Phase 1, students completed four widely accepted spatial ability tests. Subsequently, some students were invited to participate in a Phase 2 design problem-solving activity wearing the Tobii Pro Glasses 3 to collect eye tracking data to gain insight into the design problem-solving behaviors based on information collected about participants’ eye movement fixations (i.e. duration and location). In this paper, we report on the analysis conducted through Tobii Pro Lab research software involving 13 study participants of whom 7 (1 female, 6 male: 3 first-year, 4 senior-year) were high spatial visualizers while 6 (3 female, 3 male; 4 first-year, 2 senior-year) were low spatial visualizers. Findings from the study suggest that the solutions produced by the high visualizers were more graphical compared to low visualizers. Low visualizers focused more on the problem statement, spending more time reading it and coming back to it compared to high visualizers who remained in the problem solution area for most of the problem-solving session. Recognizing the importance of spatial abilities in design problem-solving, educators can incorporate activities and exercises aimed at developing spatial skills among students which could include spatial reasoning tasks, visualization exercises, and hands-on design projects.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2020785
- PAR ID:
- 10543125
- Publisher / Repository:
- ASEE Conferences
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Portland, Oregon
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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null (Ed.)Problem-solving focuses on defining and analyzing problems, then finding viable solutions through an iterative process that requires brainstorming and understanding of what is known and what is unknown in the problem space. With rapid changes of economic landscape in the United States, new types of jobs emerge when new industries are created. Employers report that problem-solving is the most important skill they are looking for in job applicants. However, there are major concerns about the lack of problem-solving skills in engineering students. This lack of problem-solving skills calls for an approach to measure and enhance these skills. In this research, we propose to understand and improve problem-solving skills in engineering education by integrating eye-tracking sensing with virtual reality (VR) manufacturing. First, we simulate a manufacturing system in a VR game environment that we call a VR learning factory. The VR learning factory is built in the Unity game engine with the HTC Vive VR system for navigation and motion tracking. The headset is custom-fitted with Tobii eye-tracking technology, allowing the system to identify the coordinates and objects that a user is looking at, at any given time during the simulation. In the environment, engineering students can see through the headset a virtual manufacturing environment composed of a series of workstations and are able to interact with workpieces in the virtual environment. For example, a student can pick up virtual plastic bricks and assemble them together using the wireless controller in hand. Second, engineering students are asked to design and assemble car toys that satisfy predefined customer requirements while minimizing the total cost of production. Third, data-driven models are developed to analyze eye-movement patterns of engineering students. For instance, problem-solving skills are measured by the extent to which the eye-movement patterns of engineering students are similar to the pattern of a subject matter expert (SME), an ideal person who sets the expert criterion for the car toy assembly process. Benchmark experiments are conducted with a comprehensive measure of performance metrics such as cycle time, the number of station switches, weight, price, and quality of car toys. Experimental results show that eye-tracking modeling is efficient and effective to measure problem-solving skills of engineering students. The proposed VR learning factory was integrated into undergraduate manufacturing courses to enhance student learning and problem-solving skills.more » « less
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Context Engineering design skills are essential for engineering students to succeed in their careers. Engineering design is a skill that is in high demand in the current job market and should be prioritized in education. Purpose While design has been acknowledged as a cognitive skill in research, there exists limited literature addressing the cognitive foundations of design thinking. Hence, engineering educators must understand the engineering design process, as well as the different ways students approach design problem-solving and the potential reason behind these differences. To understand how people solve design problems, we need to consider how their minds work and the strategies they use. Spatial ability stands out as a cognitive factor that is crucial for designers and holds significance in well-established theories and models of intelligence. However, to date, research exploring the impact of spatial ability on design thinking and its influence on problem-scoping behaviors remains limited. This paper examines how engineering students’ spatial skills influence how they define the scope of open-ended design problems. The central research question that guides this paper is “How do design problem-scoping behaviors differ for engineering students based on their spatial scores?”. Methods The researchers used a mixed methods research approach to answer their research question, collecting qualitative and quantitative data in two phases. One hundred twenty-seven undergraduate engineering students completed four tests that measure spatial reasoning skills in the quantitative phase and 101 students returned to finish the three design tasks in the second phase. This paper will examine the performance of students with low spatial and high spatial skills on one of the completed design tasks. Outcomes From the study, it was clear that spatial skills have an impact on the design-scoping behaviors of the undergraduate engineering students. It was inferred that high spatial skill visualizers emphasized the technical details of the design problem whereas low spatial skill visualizers emphasized the context of the design problem during their problem-scoping behavior. A Mann-Whitney test revealed there was a statistically significant difference in detail- and context-focused segments between the high and low spatial visualizer groups. Conclusion This research study confirms that a relationship exists between spatial and design skills. The study also found that undergraduate engineering students with different levels of spatial skills had different approaches to scoping design problems.more » « less
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Context Engineering design skills are essential for engineering students to succeed in their careers. Engineering design is a skill that is in high demand in the current job market and should be prioritized in education. Purpose While design has been acknowledged as a cognitive skill in research, there exists limited literature addressing the cognitive foundations of design thinking. Hence, engineering educators must understand the engineering design process, as well as the different ways students approach design problem-solving and the potential reason behind these differences. To understand how people solve design problems, we need to consider how their minds work and the strategies they use. Spatial ability stands out as a cognitive factor that is crucial for designers and holds significance in well-established theories and models of intelligence. However, to date, research exploring the impact of spatial ability on design thinking and its influence on problem-scoping behaviors remains limited. This paper examines how engineering students’ spatial skills influence how they define the scope of open-ended design problems. The central research question that guides this paper is “How do design problem-scoping behaviors differ for engineering students based on their spatial scores?”. Methods The researchers used a mixed methods research approach to answer their research question, collecting qualitative and quantitative data in two phases. One hundred twenty-seven undergraduate engineering students completed four tests that measure spatial reasoning skills in the quantitative phase and 101 students returned to finish the three design tasks in the second phase. This paper will examine the performance of students with low spatial and high spatial skills on one of the completed design tasks. Outcomes From the study, it was clear that spatial skills have an impact on the design-scoping behaviors of the undergraduate engineering students. It was inferred that high spatial skill visualizers emphasized the technical details of the design problem whereas low spatial skill visualizers emphasized the context of the design problem during their problem-scoping behavior. A Mann-Whitney test revealed there was a statistically significant difference in detail- and context-focused segments between the high and low spatial visualizer groups. Conclusion This research study confirms that a relationship exists between spatial and design skills. The study also found that undergraduate engineering students with different levels of spatial skills had different approaches to scoping design problems.more » « less
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--47450
