Semmens, R. (2016, June), Inventing the Precedence Diagram as Preparation for Future Learning  Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.25469

\bibitem{asee_peer_25469}
  Semmens, R. (2016, June), \emph{Inventing the Precedence Diagram as Preparation for Future Learning}
  Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana.
  10.18260/p.25469

Robert Semmens.  "Inventing the Precedence Diagram as Preparation for Future Learning".  2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2016.  https://peer.asee.org/25469 Internet.  17 Apr, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_25469}
  Robert Semmens.
  "Inventing the Precedence Diagram as Preparation for Future Learning".
  \emph{2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2016, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2016.
  https://peer.asee.org/25469 Internet.  17 Apr, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_25469
author = "Robert Semmens"
title = "Inventing the Precedence Diagram as Preparation for Future Learning"
booktitle = "2016 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2016"
month = "June"
address = "New Orleans, Louisiana"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/25469}
number = {10.18260/p.25469}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Type of Paper:  Work in Progress

Visualizations and diagrams help us organize many facets of data in Systems Engineering, from Pareto charts to fish bone diagrams.  Typical instruction often introduces the best form of the graphical aid actively, and in doing so, ties it directly to the task.  However, a major goal of education is to prepare people for future learning, as no engineering program can teach engineers everything they will need to know.

Is it possible to introduce visualizations in such a way that engineers will be prepared to create visualizations and displays of data for systems that have yet to be designed?  By having students "invent" (i.e. create for themselves without explicit instruction) the precedence diagram in a project scheduling task, similar to those used to teach the critical path method or program evaluation and review technique, they may be prepared to learn about visualizations more broadly.  This paper describes efforts to encourage students to create visualizations in a problem solving context.

Prior research has shown that undergraduates will not spontaneously make visualizations of data to help them problem solve.  In this study, I replicate this finding in two different tasks.  The first is one in which participants needed to determine the shortest path between two towns.  The second was a construction project scheduling task, in which participants needed to determine how long the entire project would take.  Novices, who could most benefit from organizing information did not graphically represent the list of tasks that must be completed to build a building.  They often assumed that only one task could be done at once.  Potentially as a result, they did not recognize that a visualization would lead them to the correct answer.  

However, when participants were asked if tasks could be done at the same time to speed up the project, participants in the experimental condition were more likely to agree than participants in the baseline condition.  The experimental condition had received three tasks prior to help them see the value of visualizations, whereas the baseline condition had not.  Ongoing work includes revising these materials to ensure that all participants do see the value of a visualization, and developing an intervention to allow participants to learn and use a novel visualization.




AU  - Robert Semmens
CY  - New Orleans, Louisiana
DA  - 2016/06/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Inventing the Precedence Diagram as Preparation for Future Learning
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/25469
DO  - 10.18260/p.25469
ER  -