Collaborative Research: Scaling Up the Use of Mixed Reality in Civil Engineering Education

在NSF改善本科STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源（IUSE：EHR）的支持下，这个合作项目旨在通过改善本科土木工程教育来服务于国家利益。 在团队先前成功构建原始混合现实学习环境的基础上，该团队计划扩大传统工程课堂体验与真实虚拟活动的整合。具体而言，该项目将把混合现实学习环境整合到岩土工程的土木工程必修课程中。 总体目标是通过为课堂学习提供真实的环境来提高学生的积极性和参与度。岩土工程课程需要实地考察，学生将他们在课堂上学到的知识应用于现实生活中的土木工程问题。 因此，本课程特别适合测试混合现实在工程教育中的使用，因为它可以模拟多个土木工程问题，而不会使学生暴露在危险的情况下。该课程和伴随的混合现实教育环境将在20多所大学实施，包括西班牙裔服务机构和历史上的黑人学院和大学。 因此，该项目将测试混合现实组件及其附带课程的效果，超过6，500名学生。通过分析这种将混合现实融入课程的方法，该项目有可能为不同人群的学习者确定设计和实施混合现实学习体验的包容性最佳实践。该项目的具体目标包括：（1）培养学生在该领域的实践经验，这在传统的土木工程课程中是罕见的;（2）评估工程判断力，这是执业工程师的关键能力;（3）通过提供模拟现场经验，提高学生的参与度和积极性。基于动机的自我决定理论，该项目的混合方法研究设计将以学生，教师和机构为关键信息提供者。这种全面的考试将增加对混合现实学习环境如何改善工程教育的理解，通过为教师和学生的不同受众创建可扩展的，可持续的，严格的和内在激励的教学和学习活动。 NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过机构和社区转型的轨道，该计划支持的努力，以改变和改善高等教育机构和学科社区的STEM教育.这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估支持.

With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), this collaborative project aims to serve the national interest by improving undergraduate civil engineering education. Building on the team's prior successful work with a primitive mixed reality learning environment, the team plans to scale up the integration of traditional engineering classroom experiences with authentic virtual activities. Specifically, the project will integrate a mixed reality learning environment into a required civil engineering course on geotechnical engineering. The overall goal is to increase student motivation and engagement by providing real-life contexts for classroom learning. The geotechnical engineering course requires field visits in which the students apply what they learn in the classroom to real-life civil engineering problems. Thus, this course is especially suitable for testing the use of mixed reality in engineering education because it can simulate multiple civil engineering problems without exposing students to dangerous situations. The course and accompanying mixed-reality educational environment will be implemented at more than twenty universities, including Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. As a result, the project will test the effects of the mixed reality component and its accompanying curriculum with over 6,500 students. Through analysis of this approach for integrating mixed reality into curricula, the project has the potential to identify inclusive best practices for design and implementation of mixed reality learning experiences for diverse populations of learners.The project specific aims include: (1) developing students' practical experience in the field, which is currently rare in traditional civil engineering curricula; (2) assessing engineering judgment, a critical competency for practicing engineers; and (3) increasing students' engagement and motivation by providing simulated field experiences. Grounded in the Self-Determination Theory of motivation, the project's mixed-methods research design will feature students, instructors, and institutions as critical informants. This comprehensive examination will increase understanding of the ways in which mixed reality learning environments can improve engineering education by enabling the creation of scalable, sustainable, rigorous, and intrinsically motivating teaching and learning activities for a diverse audience of instructors and students. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.