Leadership In Laboratory Development For Visual Reasoning InEngineering Education

该项目将开发一个创新的教学软件系统，以提高工科学生的视觉推理能力。我们将提供一个学习系统，学生可以利用它在一系列自定进度的练习中发展可视化和空间推理能力。具体地说，我们将采用构成所有视觉推理过程的基础的视点缺失问题。这个问题需要视觉分析和视觉合成，并被认为是一个学生在解决能力上表现出极大的多样性的问题。我们将借鉴实体建模和人工智能技术以及交互式计算机图形学的力量来实现这样一个教学系统。该系统将捕获并批评每个学生的推理步骤。该系统将根据学生对解决先前问题的能力的感知来选择合适的难度级别，以便为每个学生提供合适的练习路径。该系统将提供一个以发现为导向的学习环境，学生在该系统的指导下，从自己积累的经验中发展视觉推理技能。该软件系统将在伊利诺伊大学香槟分校工程制图和设计课程的实验室课程中进行测试和评估。这是工程学院大多数学科的必修课。然后，该软件系统将被移植到不同的计算平台上，并分发给全国其他机构。还将通过在ASEE会议上举办讲习班来传播项目成果。

This project will develop an innovative instructional software system which will increase visual reasoning capabilities of engineering students. We will provide a learning system with which a student can develop visualizing and spatial reasoning capabilities in a self-paced series of exercises. Specifically, we will take the missing view problem which forms the foundation for all visual reasoning processes. This problem requires both visual analysis and visual synthesis, and has been identified as the one for which students show immense diversity in their solving capabilities. We will draw from solid modeling and artificial intelligence technology and the power of interactive computer graphics to implement such an instructional system. The system will capture and critique the reasoning steps of each student. The system will select a suitable level of difficulty based on perceived capability of the student in solving previous problems so that a suitable path of exercises can be provided for each student. The system will provide a discovery-oriented learning environment where the students develop visual reasoning skills from their own accumulated experiences guided by the system. The software system will be tested and evaluated in the laboratory curriculum of Engineering Graphics and Design course at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This is a required course of most disciplines in the College of Engineering. The software system will then be ported to diverse computing platforms and disseminated to other institutions nationwide. The project results will also be disseminated by holding workshops in ASEE meetings.