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Board 386: Sketchtivity, an Intelligent Sketch Tutoring Software: Broadening Applications and Impact

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Tagged Topic

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

8

DOI

10.18260/1-2--43086

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/43086

Download Count

116

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Paper Authors

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Hillary E. Merzdorf Texas A&M University

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Hillary Merzdorf is a postdoctoral researcher at Texas A&M University with the Institute for Engineering Education and Innovation. Her research interests are in assessment methods with both learning analytics and traditional psychometrics, spatial reasoning in engineering, and cognitive psychology of student-technology interactions.

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Donna Jaison Texas A&M University

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Donna Jaison is a Ph.D. student under Dr. Karan Watson and Dr. Tracy Hammond in the Multidisciplinary Engineering Department at Texas A&M College Station. She is a Graduate research assistant at the Institute of Engineering Education and Innovation(IEEI) at Texas A&M University.

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Samantha Ray Texas A&M University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-3189-8899

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Samantha Ray is a Computer Engineering PhD student at Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on creating intelligent systems for tasks that require human-like levels of understanding. She has previously worked on human activity recognition (HAR) systems for promoting healthy habits and educational tools using sketch recognition and eye tracking.

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Anna Stepanova Texas A&M University

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Dr. Anna Stepanova is a researcher at the Sketch Recognition Lab at Texas A&M University. She holds a Ph.D., Master’s and Bachelor’s in geology. Anna’s research interests are in geosciences, micropaleontology and education.

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Vimal Kumar Viswanathan San Jose State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-2984-0025

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Dr. Vimal Viswanathan is an associate professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at San Jose State University. He earned his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. His research interests include design innovation, creativity, design theory and engineering education.

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Vinayak Krishnamurthy

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Wayne Li Georgia Institute of Technology

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Wayne K. Li is the James L. Oliver Professor, which is an endowed joint position between the Colleges of Design and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Through classes and the Innovation and Design Collaboration (IDC), he leads joint teach

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Julie S Linsey Georgia Institute of Technology

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Dr. Julie S. Linsey is a Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technological. Dr. Linsey received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas. Her research area is

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Tracy Anne Hammond Texas A&M University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-7272-0507

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Dr. Hammond is Director of the Texas A&M University Institute for Engineering Education & Innovation and also the chair of the Engineering Education Faculty. She is also Director of the Sketch Recognition Lab and Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering. She is a member of the Center for Population and Aging, the Center for Remote Health Technologies & Systems as well as the Institute for Data Science. Hammond is a PI for over 13 million in funded research, from NSF, DARPA, Google, Microsoft, and others. Hammond holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and FTO (Finance Technology Option) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and four degrees from Columbia University: an M.S in Anthropology, an M.S. in Computer Science, a B.A. in Mathematics, and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Physics. Hammond advised 17 UG theses, 29 MS theses, and 10 Ph.D. dissertations. Hammond is the 2020 recipient of the TEES Faculty Fellows Award and the 2011 recipient of the Charles H. Barclay, Jr. '45 Faculty Fellow Award. Hammond has been featured on the Discovery Channel and other news sources. Hammond is dedicated to diversity and equity, which is reflected in her publications, research, teaching, service, and mentoring. More at http://srl.tamu.edu and http://ieei.tamu.edu.

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Kerrie A Douglas Purdue University, West Lafayette Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-2693-5272

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Dr. Douglas is an Associate Professor in the Purdue School of Engineering Education. Her research is focused on improving methods of assessment in engineering learning environments and supporting engineering students.

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Abstract

Sketching is an essential part of engineering education. Engineering students gain various competencies from learning to sketch, which includes improvement in spatial visualization, problem-solving, communication, and idea generation. Although learning to sketch benefits students in various ways, teaching them to sketch and providing individualized feedback to students is challenging. To address this, we developed SketchTivity, an intelligent tutoring system, to provide students a place to practice sketching fundamentals and two-point perspective with randomly generated exercises. Our tool measures line quality (e.g., line smoothness and straightness), drawing speed, and geometric and perspective correctness of sketches. Sketch recognition algorithms are robust to the myriad of ways students can draw, allowing them to draw with one or more strokes. Feedback at the end of exercises aligns with the sketching techniques taught in classrooms to reinforce good habits. The main goals of this project are to improve engineering students' sketching skills and to study the implications of learning to sketch in the context of idea generation, creativity, and engineering design self-efficacy.

Sketching assessment is a challenging task that directly depends on the goal of sketching lessons. To better understand the state of sketching assessment in engineering and design, we conducted a systematic literature review to investigate sketching assessment methods and topics. The results of the systematic review will benefit the engineering education community with a summary of prevalent strategies. Informed by the systematic literature review and expert consultation, an Object Assembly Sketching skills Test was developed to benefit engineering educators. This poster will present our Object Assembly Sketching skills test rubric.

Through this poster, we present our recent findings that indicate the need for more in-depth training on qualitative skills like spatial reasoning and sketching in engineering education. Our team conducted a study over several semesters that tracked students' development of sketching abilities and spatial skills in an entry-level design and graphics course. We examined how those skills influenced the use of sketching in future design project courses. We found that strong spatial skills in an entry-level course positively correlated with sketching frequency in a capstone design course (r(119) = 0.260, p < .01). We found that initial sketching skill in the entry-level course positively correlated with using sketching for a variety of purposes in a capstone design course (r(107) = 0.193, p < .05). These findings suggest the need for more frequent and high-quality sketching instruction in engineering classrooms to improve design skills and spatial reasoning.

To summarize, through this poster, we would like to expand the reach of our free Intelligent Tutoring system that could be used in any university to improve sketching skills in engineering students. We will also present our most recent findings since ASEE 2022 up until the next few months based on our ongoing research.

Merzdorf, H. E., & Jaison, D., & Ray, S., & Stepanova, A., & Viswanathan, V. K., & Krishnamurthy, V., & Li, W., & Linsey, J. S., & Hammond, T. A., & Douglas, K. A. (2023, June), Board 386: Sketchtivity, an Intelligent Sketch Tutoring Software: Broadening Applications and Impact Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43086

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