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Sketchtivity, an Intelligent Tutoring Software: Broadening Applications and Impact

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

6

DOI

10.18260/1-2--42014

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/42014

Download Count

163

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Paper Authors

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Julie Linsey Georgia Institute of Technology

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Tracy Hammond Texas A&M University

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Kerrie Douglas Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

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Dr. Kerrie Douglas, Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue, studies how to improve the quality of classroom assessments and evaluation of online learning in a variety of engineering education contexts. She holds a PhD in Educational Psychology and a M.A. in Educational Studies, with focus on school counseling. She is a co-PI on the SCALE project, leading the evaluation and assessment efforts. She recently received an NSF award to study engineering instructor decisions and student support during COVID-19 and impact the pandemic is having on engineering students. She also recently won the prestigious CAREER award from the U.S. National Science Foundation to study increasing the fairness of engineering assessments. In total, she has been on the leadership of more than $24 million dollars in research awards. Her research on evaluation of online learning (supported by two NSF awards #1544259,1935683, ) has resulted in more than 20 peer-reviewed conference and journal publications related to engineering learners in online courses. She was a FutureLearn Research Fellow from 2017-2019; a 2018 recipient of the FIE New Faculty Fellow Award and was the 2021 Program Chair for the Educational Research Methods Division of ASEE.

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Vimal Viswanathan San Jose State University

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Vinayak Krishnamurthy

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Hillary Merzdorf Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

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Hillary Merzdorf is a Ph.D. candidate at Purdue University in the School of Engineering Education. Her research interests are in flexible assessment practices incorporating both traditional psychometrics and technology-based approaches, digital engineering education tools, and cognitive engineering methods for learning research.

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Donna Jaison Texas A&M University

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Graduate Student at Texas A&M University.

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Samantha Ray Texas A&M University

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Samantha Ray is a Ph.D. student in the Sketch Recognition Lab at Texas A&M University. She received a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2018. Her research focuses on human-centered AI, developing systems that understand human behavior. She has worked on projects in human activity recognition to recognize activities of daily living (ADLs), intelligent tutoring systems to teach perspective sketching, and cognition-aware computing to measure people's mental workload on spatial visualization tasks.

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Morgan Weaver Georgia Institute of Technology

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Wayne Li Georgia Institute of Technology

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Abstract

Freehand sketching is an essential skill for engineers. Sketching enables designers to represent ideas rapidly and offload working memory. Sketches in the design process also correlate with positive design outcomes. Teaching sketching to engineers, however, presents many challenges in engineering curriculums. Sketching is most often taught in large entry-level courses where individualized feedback, which is vital to learning sketching, is not possible. Sketchtivity is an intelligent tutoring software designed to aid in the practice and feedback on freehand sketching skills. Sketchtivity teaches the basics of two-point perspective sketching providing lessons, feedback, and tips on how to improve. The goal of this project is to implement Sketchtivity at a broader range of universities, to expand on the software functionality, and to understand more about the implications of improving sketching skill. Sketchtivity is currently being implemented in classrooms at three diverse universities across the United States. Our research has shown that the tablet interface does not negatively impact students’ sketching skill development. We are currently conducting further experiments to better understand how students are learning from the feedback the software provides. Beyond measuring current impact, this project seeks to expand the functionality of Sketchtivity to offer lessons on more complex sketching tasks and more poignant feedback to learners. The main research goal is focused on improving sketching skills. The remaining goals turn outward toward the implications for improved sketching skill for engineers. It is essential to understand how to measure sketching skill effectively, and what role sketching skill plays in engineering design. Sketching skill has been measured in many different ways in many different fields and there seems to be no consensus on measurement strategy or validity. As a part of this project, we are conducting a systematic literature review of sketching evaluation. This literature review aims to compile the different methods of measurement to remove some of the ambiguity around evaluating sketching skill in engineering research and education. There has been much research on the role of sketching in engineering design, but the research around sketching skill has been limited. Essential to improving skill in any task is understanding how confidence in the skill is affected. Engineers’ self-efficacy can enable or limit their application of skills. We are also looking at how sketching skill is related to drawing self-efficacy. Sketching has the largest impact in the early stages of design. The final research goal of this project is to investigate the relationship between sketching and creativity in the early stages of design. Through experiments of idea generation and sketching abilities, we hope to better understand to what degree sketching enables creativity in design. To summarize, this project seeks to improve sketching skill through Sketchtivity. We are accomplishing this through expanding reach at multiple universities and expanding the capabilities of the software. It is also essential to understand the implications of improving sketching skill. This is being investigated through improved evaluation of sketching and investigations of sketching’s relationship to drawing self-efficacy and creativity.

Linsey, J., & Hammond, T., & Douglas, K., & Viswanathan, V., & Krishnamurthy, V., & Merzdorf, H., & Jaison, D., & Ray, S., & Weaver, M., & Li, W. (2022, August), Sketchtivity, an Intelligent Tutoring Software: Broadening Applications and Impact Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--42014

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