Investigating the Impact of Visuohaptic Simulations for Conceptual Understanding in Electricity and Magnetism

Sanchez, Karla; Magana, Alejandra J.; Sederberg, David; Richards, Grant; Jones, M. Gail; Tan, Hong Z.

doi:10.18260/1-2--19845

Cited by 4 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Previous work that has used visual cues and haptic feedback to represent abstract concepts in science has shown mixed results in terms of their effect on students' conceptual learning [59]. While Wiebe et al [55], Park et al [35], and Sanchez et al [41] found that the combination of visual and haptic feedback did not provide an advantage over the visual modality, Magana et al [23] determined that adding haptic feedback in a sequenced manner increased students' performance. Therefore, we used a visuohaptic simulation following a sequenced approach and visual-only to identify students' improvements of conceptual learning and representational skills of FBDs for truss systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Examples in higher education investigating the value of adding haptic feedback to virtual environments are found in Park et al [35] for electrical charges (n = 38) and Sanchez et al [41] for electricity and magnetism (n = 66). At the postgraduate education level, Schönborn et al [44] performed a study with 20 students who learned about protein-ligand interactions, and they found that students in the control condition performed twice the number of actions to obtain a less relevant result than the students in the haptic group.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A learner‐centered approach for designing visuohaptic simulations for conceptual understanding of truss structures

Walsh

Magana

Will

et al. 2021

Comp Applic In Engineering

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The purpose of this study was to explore the process of designing a visuohaptic simulation for learning structural analysis following a learner-centered approach (LCD). Our implementation of an LCD approach followed a three-part iterative process: (1) requirements analysis and specification, (2) multimedia application design, and (3) prototype inspection. In designing the learning tasks, we employed a three-phase pedagogical approach of prediction, experimentation, and confirmation. We found that designing a visuohaptic si-

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A learner‐centered approach for designing visuohaptic simulations for conceptual understanding of truss structures

Walsh

Magana

Will

et al. 2021

Comp Applic In Engineering

Self Cite

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“…Computer applications and systems have experienced exponential growth in the creation of simulators and learning stations, and nowadays they are a feasible and novel solution to improve learning and training [22]. The current trend focuses on the addition of haptic devices to simulators to provide force feedback [12][13][14]. In the area of Electricity and Magnetism, virtual simulators have also been studied in recent years.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent visuo-haptic simulators for Electricity and Magnetism have concentrated on helping students to determine the direction of the electric/magnetic forces to infer the corresponding geometry of the electric/magnetic fields [14]. Sanchez et al created a haptic simulation to teach freshmen engineering students about electromagnetism [12]. The aim of their study was to examine the efficacy of these simulations in the students' learning process.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, the usefulness of visuo-haptic implementations to sense those forces that cannot be tested manually have been explored, as the case for example of the electromagnetic forces, for which only indirect measures can be inferred from laboratory experiments. Several researches have been conducted with this purpose [10][11][12][13][14][15]. In engineering education two of the basic key areas are Classical Mechanics and Electricity and Magnetism.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Visuo-Haptic Simulations to Understand the Dependence of Electric Forces on Distance

et al. 2020

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In this paper, the potential of visuo-haptic simulators to help engineering students to understand the nature of electric forces between different electric charge distributions is addressed. Three visuo-haptic simulators were designed to perceive the attractive–repulsive behavior as well as the dependence on distance of electrical forces for: (a) point charge, (b) line charge, and (c) plane charge. Design elements were incorporated to improve the 3D perception of the simulators. A sample of N = 111 engineering students practiced with the simulators: 87 enrolled in an Electricity and Magnetism course and 24 enrolled in a more advanced Electromagnetic Fields course. Pre-test and Post-test were applied before and after working with the simulators and average learning gains were obtained. t-tests were performed to determine the statistical significance of the results. Significant learning gains were obtained for the comprehension of the force dependence in the case of line charge and plane charge, but not for the point charge, due to the fact that most students started with very high Pre-test scores in this last case. These results suggest that the use of visuo-haptic simulators may help students to better identify the dependence of electric forces on distance. It was also observed that the potential effect of improving the recognition of electric interactions was higher among students with lower previous familiarity with these topics, as compared to more advanced students. Through exit surveys, it was found that the students liked very much the haptic activity and that it sparked their interest in learning new physical concepts.

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The utility of mechanical objects: Aiding students' learning of abstract and difficult engineering concepts

Mitropoulos,

Bairaktarova,

Huxtable

2023

J of Engineering Edu

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BackgroundUndergraduate students consistently struggle with mastering concepts related to thermodynamics. Prior work has shown that haptic technology and intensive hands‐on workshops help improve learning outcomes relative to traditional lecture‐based thermodynamics instruction. The current study takes a more feasible approach to improving thermal understanding by incorporating simple mechanical objects into individual problem‐solving exercises.Purpose/HypothesesThis study tests the impact of simple mechanical objects on learning outcomes (specifically, problem‐solving performance and conceptual understanding) for third‐year undergraduate engineering students in a thermodynamics course across a semester.Design/MethodDuring the semester, 119 engineering students in two sections of an undergraduate thermodynamics course completed three 15‐min, self‐guided problem‐solving tasks, one section without and the other with a simple and relevant physical object. Performance on the tasks and improvements in thermodynamics comprehension (measured via Thermal and Transport Concept Inventory scores) were compared between the two sections.ResultsStudents who had a simple, relevant object available to solve three thermodynamics problems consistently outperformed their counterparts without objects, although only to statistical significance when examining the simple effects for the third problem. At the end of the semester, students who had completed the tasks with the objects displayed significantly greater improvements in thermodynamics comprehension than their peers without the relevant object. Higher mechanical aptitude facilitated the beneficial effect of object availability on comprehension improvements.ConclusionFindings suggest that the incorporation of simple mechanical objects into active learning exercises in thermodynamics curricula could facilitate student learning in thermodynamics and potentially other abstract domains.

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Investigating the Impact of Visuohaptic Simulations for Conceptual Understanding in Electricity and Magnetism

Cited by 4 publications

References 12 publications

A learner‐centered approach for designing visuohaptic simulations for conceptual understanding of truss structures

A learner‐centered approach for designing visuohaptic simulations for conceptual understanding of truss structures

Visuo-Haptic Simulations to Understand the Dependence of Electric Forces on Distance

The utility of mechanical objects: Aiding students' learning of abstract and difficult engineering concepts

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