2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

[WIP] Instructor Perspectives on the use of Educational Software in Core Undergraduate Science and Engineering Courses

Presented at CIT Technical Session 5: Curriculum and Program Development.

Technology use has become ubiquitous in education, resulting in a wide variety of hardware and software tools being available to educators, including instructors of core undergraduate science and engineering courses. These instructors’ use of technology affects their own work and has direct impacts on large portions of students in a variety of majors. This study looks at software designed specifically for teaching and learning (educational software), a subset of educational technology which includes products ranging from general-purpose platforms like learning management systems (LMSs) to platforms with narrower scopes, such as virtual lab simulations and tools for assessment and grading. This work-in-progress paper shares preliminary findings from analysis of instructor responses to a question asking them to imagine and share their ideas of “ideal” educational software based on their goals for teaching and learning. Data from semi-structured interviews conducted with instructors from a diverse range of institutions and courses is analyzed through the lens of Activity Theory using thematic analysis. Preliminary findings suggest that instructors experience varying levels of comfortability within their existing activity systems and that their desires for systemic change and embrace of AI allow them to imagine more creative educational software that would better align with their goals. Based on the imagined software that instructors discuss, this paper highlights emerging “gaps” between imagined and desired educational software that could serve as potential future work for educational software developers and education researchers.

Authors

Sarah Kaczynski Tufts University [biography]

Sarah is a PhD student studying STEM Education at Tufts University. Her research focuses on the design, development, use, and assessment of educational technologies in undergraduate science and engineering courses. She works with Professor Milo Koretsky to support, maintain, and develop tools for teaching and learning, including the Concept Warehouse and a collection of virtual labs.
Sandra Walter Huffman Tufts University [biography]

Sandy is a postdoctoral scholar at Tufts University working on Engineering Education research. She is interested in student modeling practices, knowledge practices, and sense-making activities in undergraduate engineering courses. She looks at the ways traditional classroom contexts influence student problem-solving methodologies, and ways task design and facilitation strategies can help students practice authentic engineering. She received her undergraduate and masters degrees in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, focusing in product design for emerging markets and engineering education research, accordingly. Her interdisciplinary PhD, also based in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, centered the sociocultural ways students engage with technical engineering material and suggested directions for a more integrated, authentic approach to helping students develop technical modeling practices that utilize course material in unfamiliar contexts.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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