Effects of Virtual/Augmented Reality Technology on Subdiscipline Understanding and Commitment for First-Year Architectural Engineering Students

Morgan McArthur Author

08/02/2021 Added

9 Plays

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VR/AR technology has a promising future in the field of engineering education because it has the ability to increase student engagement and motivation towards course content. In this study, we used a variant of VR/AR technology to increase students' understanding of the various subdisciplines available to them and assist them in their decision-making process in choosing one subdiscipline to focus on in their education.

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[00:00:01.100]Hello, I am Morgan McArthur
[00:00:03.160]and I am presenting this poster over
[00:00:05.540]the effects of virtual/augmented reality technology
[00:00:08.663]on subdiscipline understanding and commitment
[00:00:11.490]for first-year architectural engineering students
[00:00:14.030]on behalf of myself and Dr. Diefes-Dux.
[00:00:17.850]The role of college education is to provide students
[00:00:20.990]with the tools and confidence that they need
[00:00:23.440]when entering the workforce.
[00:00:25.310]The foundation for this confidence
[00:00:27.150]is provided by the introductory courses
[00:00:29.250]early in a student's education.
[00:00:31.520]Also, these courses are often where students
[00:00:33.840]are introduced to the different fields of their discipline.
[00:00:36.910]Finding the right subdiscipline can cause a spike
[00:00:39.120]in the student's confidence towards their future career.
[00:00:42.670]However, intro courses are often seen as easy As
[00:00:46.760]where students don't have to pay attention
[00:00:48.630]to receive a good grade,
[00:00:50.170]even though they should be paying attention
[00:00:52.140]to receive the vital information present in these courses.
[00:00:55.970]Therefore, a method of engagement is necessary
[00:00:58.820]to make sure all students receive the full benefit
[00:01:01.130]of these introduction courses.
[00:01:03.760]Hoit and Ohland introduced a lab section
[00:01:06.600]into their course to solve this problem.
[00:01:09.320]Here, we are using a virtual/augmented reality
[00:01:13.270]discipline exploration rotations,
[00:01:15.760]or VADERs for short,
[00:01:18.230]to increase student engagement and motivation.
[00:01:22.410]Our goal in this study was to use VR and AR technology
[00:01:26.330]to introduce architectural engineering students
[00:01:29.080]to the different subdisciplines that are available to them
[00:01:31.920]in an engaging way and early in their college careers.
[00:01:35.909]This engagement would come through
[00:01:38.530]the emergent inherence of VR and AR technology.
[00:01:42.010]After this study, we want students to be able
[00:01:44.230]to more easily choose which subdiscipline
[00:01:46.850]they want to pursue
[00:01:48.280]and have a more concrete idea
[00:01:49.810]about what jobs in their field might look like.
[00:01:53.760]This study focused on a first-year
[00:01:55.520]intro to architectural engineering course
[00:01:57.860]at two different universities.
[00:02:00.240]In this study, students used the VADER program
[00:02:02.830]to experience the different subdisciplines in their field
[00:02:05.660]while exploring a virtual clinic.
[00:02:08.600]The data was collected through two surveys.
[00:02:10.860]One was before the VADER intervention,
[00:02:13.150]and the other was afterwards.
[00:02:15.870]We had three research questions
[00:02:17.620]that we wanted to focus on during this study.
[00:02:20.730]Number one, what is the impact of VR/AR intervention
[00:02:25.200]on architectural engineering students' understanding
[00:02:27.910]of the available subdisciplines?
[00:02:30.059]Number two, did the study help students
[00:02:32.860]to commit to a subdiscipline?
[00:02:34.890]And number three, was the impact of student demographics
[00:02:38.430]on the study's influence on subdiscipline decisions?
[00:02:43.180]There are three figures here in the results section.
[00:02:46.070]The first two compare data between the pre-VADER survey
[00:02:49.230]and the post-VADER survey,
[00:02:51.160]while the third figure is taken exclusively
[00:02:53.320]from the post-VADER survey.
[00:02:55.580]All three questions that these figures are based off of
[00:02:58.430]use a 1 through 6 Likert scale,
[00:03:00.580]where 1 is strongly disagree,
[00:03:02.670]and 6 means strongly agree.
[00:03:05.880]The data comparison in the first figure
[00:03:07.720]was found to be statistically significant,
[00:03:10.160]while all the analyzed demographic data
[00:03:12.300]was determined to not be statistically significant.
[00:03:16.460]The first figure reflects the students' confidence
[00:03:18.857]and their understanding of the different subdisciplines.
[00:03:22.030]This saw a great growth over the course
[00:03:23.900]of the VADER intervention.
[00:03:25.560]In the post-VADER survey,
[00:03:26.870]students seemed to rate their confidence more highly,
[00:03:29.380]and hardly any students gave a score of 3 or below,
[00:03:33.070]which would indicate that they didn't feel more confident
[00:03:35.200]in their subdiscipline knowledge.
[00:03:37.949]In the second figure, we can see that many students
[00:03:40.630]started with at least some confidence
[00:03:42.410]in their initial subdiscipline decision.
[00:03:44.860]The post survey asked the students if they gained confidence
[00:03:48.520]regarding their initial subdiscipline choice,
[00:03:50.670]which 50 out of 68 total students agreed with.
[00:03:54.330]In the third figure, many students rated 1 to 3.
[00:03:58.650]This means that they disagreed
[00:04:00.460]that they changed their top subdiscipline choice.
[00:04:02.890]However, it is important to note
[00:04:04.610]that 24 of the students did agree.
[00:04:08.010]There is an overlap of 11 students
[00:04:09.780]between the previous two categories,
[00:04:12.000]likely due to a misunderstanding
[00:04:13.690]of the second figure's question,
[00:04:15.540]where students may have thought
[00:04:16.550]that they are more confident
[00:04:17.790]in their new subdiscipline choice,
[00:04:19.660]when the question actually asked
[00:04:20.930]for their confidence in the initial choice.
[00:04:24.720]But even without this overlap,
[00:04:26.810]an overwhelming majority
[00:04:28.040]of students' subdiscipline decisions
[00:04:29.840]were influenced by this study.
[00:04:32.020]Students either grew more confident
[00:04:33.770]in their initial subdiscipline choice,
[00:04:35.730]or changed their choice.
[00:04:38.420]Some things to keep in mind.
[00:04:40.200]Firstly, this study took place during COVID,
[00:04:43.080]so students participated online,
[00:04:45.110]not in a classroom.
[00:04:46.680]Secondly, the sample size of 68 is low,
[00:04:49.590]especially when comparing student demographic data,
[00:04:52.480]which is so low in some cases
[00:04:54.190]that we can not properly analyze the data
[00:04:56.470]without breaking confidentiality.
[00:05:00.200]Overall, the use of VADERs in a classroom setting
[00:05:03.270]has a strong effect on students' understanding
[00:05:05.560]of the subdisciplines available to them.
[00:05:07.860]Also, students should have an easier time
[00:05:10.270]choosing a subdiscipline later on in their education
[00:05:13.140]thanks to this study.
[00:05:15.990]Geisinger and Raman suggested that the inability
[00:05:19.390]to choose a major or subdiscipline
[00:05:21.360]is one of the main factors that lead to
[00:05:23.330]undergraduate students switching away
[00:05:25.020]from engineering majors.
[00:05:26.910]This study will hopefully have a larger impact
[00:05:29.700]on the participants' educations
[00:05:31.560]by helping them choose a subdiscipline,
[00:05:33.430]and therefore, decrease the likelihood of attrition
[00:05:36.260]from their current architectural engineering program.
[00:05:39.970]Thank you for watching.

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Effects of Virtual/Augmented Reality Technology on Subdiscipline Understanding and Commitment for First-Year Architectural Engineering Students

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