2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This evidence-based practice paper focuses on the unique application of Canvas Mastery Path to help provide individualized learning support to first-year engineering students in the development of their spatial visualization skills. This work represents the first step of a two-year effort aimed at replacing a traditional, standalone course designed to develop spatial visualization skills, by incorporating the materials into a common first-year engineering course. The primary objective of this first step is to determine if the Mastery Paths, when tested separately, can achieve spatial visualization gains comparable to or exceeding the original instructional formats in both the standalone spatial visualization development course and the first-year engineering course. The proposed final system will dynamically direct students, based on an initial assessment to either the material from the spatial visualization development course, or the more advanced material from the first-year engineering course.

The intervention employed Canvas Mastery Path in five key modules in both courses: Isometric Drawing, Orthographic Projection, Inclined and Curved Surfaces, Single-Axis Rotations, Multi-Axis Rotations. In both courses, the Mastery Paths begin with an initial assessment. Based on a predefined threshold, the Mastery Path automatically directed low-scoring students to specialized support material (Developing Spatial Thinking Software Modules) and then additional practice. While the high-scoring students were shown the support materials, they were allowed to skip the material, and were then directed to the same additional practice problems they low-score students were directed to.

This quasi-experimental study evaluates the efficacy of the component Mastery Path interventions across two distinct first-year engineering courses during the 2024-25 academic year, comparing student gains, measured using the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Rotations (PSVT:R), to those observed in the 2023-24 academic year using traditional instruction. We expect the Mastery Paths will result in similar gains to those observed using traditional course materials. If this is the case, we can confidently integrate the Mastery Path materials into a single adaptive system to provide individualized support to all students, and remove the standalone spatial visualization skills development course for the 2025-26 academic year.