2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Visual qualitative methodologies enhance the richness of data and makes participants experts on the object of interest. Visual data brings another dimension to the evaluation process, besides surveys and interviews, as well as depth and breadth to participants reactions to specific program activities. Visual data consists of images, such as photos, drawings, artwork, among others.
Exploring a different approach to assess impact of an educational activity, an exercise was designed where participants were asked to take photos to document a site visit to an area impacted by a swarm of earthquakes in 2019. The exercise required taking five photos of either objects, persons, scenery, structures, or any other thing that captured their attention during the visit and write a reflective essay to answer three questions: 1) How do these photos represent your site visit experience? 2) Based on the content of your photos, write about what you learned, discovered, new knowledge acquired, emotions, changes in your way of thinking, etc., and 3) What did you learned or discovered from doing this exercise?
Twenty-two undergraduate engineering and architecture students from the RISE-UP Program, enrolled in a curricular sequence in design and construction of resilient and sustainable structures, completed the exercise.
Analyses of obtained data includes frequency of captured images and content analysis of reflective essays to determine instances where each of the four proposed learning objectives was present. Results show that across essays, 32% of the essays include text that demonstrate impact related to the first objective, 59% for the second, 73% for the third, and 86% for the fourth objective. Forty-five percent of essays included text considered relevant but not related to an objective. Personal, social, and career insights were categorized as unintended results.
Photos taken by students represent what they considered relevant during the visit and also evidence the achievement of the proposed learning objectives. In general, three mayor categories emerged from the content in photos: 1) photos related to the design and construction of the structure and specific damage observed from earthquakes; 2) photos of classmates, professors, and group activities; and 3) other photos that do not share a theme.
Both photos and essays demonstrate that the learning objectives were successfully achieved and encourage the use of visual data as an alternative for the evaluation of educational activities.