Spatial visualization skills are critical for engineering since it is needed to interpret  2D representations of 3D objects (e.g., reading a blueprint). Unfortunately,  a high percentage of students have underdeveloped spatial visualization skills. To mitigate this, Lafayette College requires all their Engineering students to take a graphics course in their first semester.  However,  some students still face challenges after taking this course or are not engages during the class itself.

Immersive VR has become an emerging technology with great potential to improve students’ learning outcomes. Immersive VR systems allow users to experience being physically present in a virtual environment with the advantages of being safe, cost-effective, and fully controllable. These capabilities offer a significant potential to make learning more engaging to individuals by facilitating experiential learning. Furthermore, several studies have shown that VR can help improve students’ special visualization skills by allowing them to interact with CAD models in virtual environments. However, most of the existing applications are design following a “one-size-fits-all” approach and only allow users to interact with a limited set of CAD models. Hence, students might lose engagement after a short period of time (e.g., novelty effects). A way to mitigate this limitation is to use Machine Learning to adapt the content of the VR application bases on the student’s interaction with the applications itself (e.g.,  performance on the assessments, time spend with a model).

Therefore,  this project seeks to develop an adaptive Virtual Reality (VR) application designed to improve students’ spatial visualization skills. Specifically, this project will implement a Machine Learning model to adapt the content and feedback show to students in an application that allows them to manipulate Computer-Aided Design (CAD) models in VR environments, similar to Intelligent Tutoring Systems.

 

For Videos and more information about the application visit: https://github.com/lopezbec/VR_SpatialVisualizationApp