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CSTEPS
Collaborative Support Tools for Engineering Problem Solving
PROJECT OBJECTIVE
Generate tools to support undergraduate engineering students to develop collaborative skills through sketching activities.
ROLE
Research assistant & designer
PROJECT OUTCOME
Designed and developed a synchronized collaborative software that allowed students to create shared representations during their collaborative activities and reflect on their work within the group and whole class presentations.
SELECTED PAPERS
Lawrence, L. (2020). The design process of a collaborative orchestration tool and its implications for instructor uptake. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. [pdf]
Shehab, S., Lawrence, L., Livingston, L., Margotta, A., & Mercier, E. (2020). Towards the effective implementation of collaborative problem solving in undergraduate engineering classrooms: Co-designing guidelines for teaching assistants. Paper accepted to the American Society for Engineering Education, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, June 21-24, 2020. [link] [pdf]
Lawrence, L. & Mercier, E. (2019). Co-design of an orchestration tool: Supporting engineering teaching assistants as they facilitate collaborative learning. Interaction Design and Architecture(s) Journal, (42), 111- 130. [link] [pdf]
Lawrence, L., Shehab, S., Livingston, L., & Margotta, A. (2019). Collaborative teaching sequence: A guide for teachers. CoLearnLab Resources. www.colearnlab.org/resources
ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY
The synchronized technology allows group members to contribute to the same drawing space and draw together to develop one solution to the task. Each student works on a tablet that allows them to draw, erase, highlight and undo, as well as see their other group members location on the pages through the scroll bar.
IMPLEMENTATION
Three classes used the tool during their courses over four weeks.
Multiple iterations have been made of the tool over time; the same tool has been used in later iterations of this project where tools were built to support teaching assistants through visualizations and live prompts.
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