Board 82: Visual Literacy in Mechanical Engineering Design: A Practical Approach to Assessment and Methods to Enhance Instruction

Abstract

is the Instructional Designer for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Her primary role involves partnering with teaching faculty to create and develop courses in the online, blended, and face-to-face environments. Caitlin serves as the designer, facilitator, and instructional design consultant for the Faculty Institute for Online Teaching program. Caitlin holds a Master of Science degree in Learning Technologies and Instructional Design from Drexel University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Lebanon Valley College.

A Visual Design Framework and Assessment to Inform Instruction

“…When asked what visual materials faculty encourage students to use, 3D CAD solid models, graphs, charts and tables, diagrams and schematics, and sketches were the most popular. When asked how important visual literacy instruction was in the context of ME design, out of twenty-one faculty responses, fourteen considered it extremely important, six considered it somewhat important, and one considered it slightly important (Keller et al, 2018). While there is a lack of VL instruction to meet academic demands (Hattwig et al, 2013), there is also a lack of research on evaluating VL skills (Bowen, 2017;Kędra, 2018;Keller et al, 2018).…”

“…When asked how important visual literacy instruction was in the context of ME design, out of twenty-one faculty responses, fourteen considered it extremely important, six considered it somewhat important, and one considered it slightly important (Keller et al, 2018). While there is a lack of VL instruction to meet academic demands (Hattwig et al, 2013), there is also a lack of research on evaluating VL skills (Bowen, 2017;Kędra, 2018;Keller et al, 2018). Further, as Keller et al (2018) argue, while literature is available on VL assessment, VL assessment within STEM is underrepresented.…”

“…While there is a lack of VL instruction to meet academic demands (Hattwig et al, 2013), there is also a lack of research on evaluating VL skills (Bowen, 2017;Kędra, 2018;Keller et al, 2018). Further, as Keller et al (2018) argue, while literature is available on VL assessment, VL assessment within STEM is underrepresented. In response, at the ASEE 2018 conference, they proposed five benchmark standards a person in engineering design must meet to be considered visually literate.…”

“…It can be used to evaluate a learner's competency level (Biggs & Collis, 1982). Lastly, the authors identified Arsland and Nalinci's ( 2014 competency assessment tools to develop the five standards (Keller et al, 2018). Huber et al (2020) illustrates a collaboration between an ET librarian and ET faculty to support the VL demands for visual communications within ET.…”

“…As evidence of meeting program criteria required by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), engineering technology (ET) students are expected to both read and create graphical communications. Graphical communication courses are not required by ABET, though, so instruction often falls on ET faculty even if they do not have the expertise or time to include it in their coursework (Keller et al, 2018). Academic librarians' visual literacy (VL) instruction can support students' ability to communicate through graphics.…”