Improving student learning experience in an engineering graphics classroom through a rapid feedback and re-submission cycle

Abstract

Pictorial representation of three-dimensional objects has been one of the oldest forms of communication. Engineering graphics courses deal with the art of documenting three-dimensional objects in a two-dimensional format. Prior literature shows that graphics communication is a key skill for an engineer to possess. However, students in engineering graphics classrooms struggle to understand the concepts being taught due to a variety of reasons including poor visualization skills, limited class time, huge class sizes and unavailability of simple demonstrations. In order to address some of these issues, the instructors of the engineering graphics course at Tuskegee University, whose student population consists of predominantly underrepresented minorities, implemented a rapid feedback - resubmission cycle for students' homework. In one section of this course, the instructor provided rapid feedback on each of the homework submitted and allowed a resubmission of the same. During the resubmission, the students are expected to understand their mistakes in the original submission and correct those. They are awarded a maximum of 80% of the lost grade for the corrections. This cycle is supposed to give the students additional time to master the concept. As all these tasks depend upon their visualization skills, the resubmission cycle is expected to improve their said skill as well. This study uses Purdue Spatial Visualizations of Rotations test to measure the visualization skills of students. The results show some promising trends. The students who resubmitted their work frequently showed a greater improvement in their visualization skills compared to those who did not. While the class itself is helping students in developing some visualization skills, the rapid feedback and resubmission cycle provides an added advantage.