2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) educators use field trips or site visits to offer situated learning experiences that promote active engagement, reinforce traditional instruction, and foster deeper and more meaningful student learning. However, STEM field trips present major logistical, financial, and accessibility implementation challenges for educational institutions and instructors that reduce student opportunities to experience these situated learning environments. Factors such as constrained resources, administrative workloads, safety concerns, legal risks, stressful travel, and health problems have created significant barriers to leveraging field trips across STEM curricula. In response to these challenges, virtual field trips (VFTs) have begun to fill the gap. VFT offer a method to remove the difficulties for in-situ field trips, while retaining the critical aspects of situated learning experiences – real-time exchange of ideas in spatially shared visual-auditory workspaces. Yet, the demands of comprehending and communicating with peers about the complex situations (i.e., spatial communication) in VFT requires students to develop strong spatial abilities, a process which remains poorly understood. While many STEM disciplines widely regard spatial communication as critical for building new knowledge, there is a lack of understanding about how VFTs foster and support them. The iVisit project is investigating the use of VFTs to improve student spatial communication in situated Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) experiences as a testbed for STEM. iVisit is a VFT platform that leverages web-based digital environments to deliver multi-user, synchronous situated learning experiences. iVisit AEC VFTs offer students in-depth spatial communication learning, practice, and improvement opportunities as they interact with peers and instructors.
The current key findings of iVisit have centered in three aspects: (1) Evaluating the body of literature in AEC; (2) Identifying optimal practices needed in field trips and the transfers of those practices into VFTs; and (3) Understanding the use of VFTs for learning spatial communication. First, a systematic literature review various interventions have been developed in AEC for enhancing spatial abilities in students, including plan reading, model exploration, and virtual/augmented reality. These strategies are shown to predominantly increase spatial ability and not communication. To measure spatial ability, the most used tests for assessment include Mental Rotation Tests (MRT) and the Purdue Spatial Visualization Tests (PSVT). Second, a set of focus groups with AEC faculty experienced in conducting real-world field trips revealed that observing and interacting with the environment and the professionals present in a construction site are exceptionally important for the students. However, due to the severe field constraints, most students do not have opportunities to practice spatial communication. VFTs were discussed as a potential method to enable the student learning of spatial communication. Third, a pilot study was developed to test the learning of spatial communication using VFTs within the Frame® web-based platform. The preliminary finding shows promising results to connect spatial and communication abilities in students. Future research for iVisit will explore course/topic specific affordances that can support the learning of spatial abilities within AEC.