Towards Designing an Interactive System for Accelerated Learning and Assessment in Engineering Mechanics: A First Look at the Deforms Problem-solving System

Repeated deliberate practice has been shown to be vital to developing mastery in engineering problem solving. Online tutoring systems have enhanced learning experiences, and delivered content tailored for specialized fields. Motivated by the aim of improving students' problem solving skills, we created an interactive system for use in an undergraduate introductory engineering mechanics course required for many engineering disciplines. Our system provides an intuitive, visual framework that allows students to rapidly solve problems that require building systems of equations in multiple steps. Built within the OpenDSA eTextbook system, these exercises can be served directly through a learning management system such as Canvas, allowing the exercises to be integrated seamlessly with other content. In this paper, we describe the key design choices for our system, present important features and the student workflow, and describe support for targeted feedback and analysis for the instructors. We present our plans to evaluate the system, and discuss the results of a preliminary usability study.