2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Undergraduate engineering students often encounter challenges when entering the workforce due to a lack of practical experience, particularly in applying engineering judgment, a vital skill for addressing the complex, interdisciplinary problems of the 21st century. The importance of fostering engineering judgment in undergraduate classrooms has grown significantly, as engineers today must navigate increasingly complex environmental, social, and technical landscapes. This need is further emphasized by ABET student outcomes, which require documentation of students’ ‘ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts’ and ‘ability to...use engineering judgment to draw conclusions’. However, traditional classroom environments often provide limited opportunities for students to practice this critical competency. To address this gap, the GeoExplorer game was developed as a mixed reality learning platform to simulate real-world engineering tasks, offering students virtual internship experiences. Through GeoExplorer, students can conduct geotechnical site investigations, gaining hands-on learning experience by practicing fieldwork typically performed by engineers.

This study explores the effectiveness of the "Levee Inspection" module within GeoExplorer at enhancing students' engineering judgment. The module simulates the role of levee inspectors, requiring students to assess levee integrity, identify failure mechanisms, and recommend remediation measures to protect downstream communities. We hypothesize that students engaging with this module will improve their ability and develop greater confidence in conducting levee inspections, which potentially require engineering judgment.

To test this hypothesis, we conducted pilot implementations of the Levee Inspection module at two institutions: a four-year private research institution with 75 students and a four-year private primarily undergraduate college with 21 students. During these implementations, students acted as 'interns’, engaging in levee inspection scenarios within the game. Pre- and post-surveys were used to quantitatively assess their ability to report levee failure observations, identify failure mechanisms, and suggest appropriate remediation measures, thereby evaluating their development of engineering judgment both before and after classroom lectures and gameplay sessions.

The quantitative analysis revealed that students improved in all three areas—reporting failure observations, identifying failure mechanisms, and suggesting remediation measures—following their participation in the module. This improvement indicates that the module enhances students' practical application of engineering judgment. Furthermore, both second- and fourth-year students exhibited similar levels of performance improvement, indicating that the module is effective across different academic levels. These findings highlight the potential of integrating this module into civil engineering curricula as a means to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical, real-world problem-solving skills.

While preliminary results are encouraging, further research is needed to comprehensively understand how tools like the "Levee Inspection" module can support the long-term development of students’ engineering judgment. Future studies should incorporate both quantitative and qualitative analyses to evaluate the sustained impact of such modules on student learning outcomes and professional readiness, aligning with the increasing importance of engineering judgment in today's rapidly evolving engineering landscape.