CE 4: Engineering Graphics

Problem-Solving, Contextual, Foundational

Course Description

Catalog description: In-depth graphic analysis and solution of typical three dimensional space problems by applying the principles of orthogonal projection. Fundamentals of interactive computer aided design and drafting. Lecture one hour; laboratory three hours.

CE 4 is a lower-division course and one of the first students take in the civil engineering program; most of my students this term are first-semester freshmen or transfer students. My classes typically enroll between 25 to 35 students each. The course meets twice each week, once for one hour of lecture and once for a three-hour lab session. Lecture and lab activities are integrated into both meetings. This course previously fulfilled the General Education Area E requirement.

Overview of the Redesign Project

My goal for CE 4 is to make it a fun, low-stress, challenging course that establishes students' sense of community within civil engineering and develops students' understanding of what it means to be a civil engineer and civil engineering student. This means developing students' professionalism, critical thinking, and study skills to support their ability to succeed in future engineering classes. It also means providing a positive experience for students who come in with a wide variety of prior skill levels: some students arrive having already taken engineering design courses in high school, while others have never used a windows-based computer before. As a class that heavily uses AutoCAD, a common engineering design software, providing the right level of challenge to all students, regardless of prior experience, represents a key challenge of the course. Therefore, for this re-design project, I considered how I could integrate AI in CE 4 to support student development as it relates to 1) study skills, 2) problem-solving and troubleshooting software questions and challenges, and 3) understanding the evolving role of AI in the civil engineering profession.

I designed a new course module, including lecture materials, assessment quizzes, and a homework assignment which introduced students to the concept of AI, the various AI tools available to them, the current capabilities and limitations of those tools, and how AI is being applied in industry. Prior to the lecture module, I had students complete a quiz assessing their prior knowledge and use of AI. In lecture, students completed two "demonstration activities" to practice using AI. In the first demonstration, students used ChatGPT to develop a practice quiz they could use to study for Midterm #2, then assessed the quality of content AI provided. In the second demonstration, students used ChatGPT to help them troubleshoot a common but non-intuitive AutoCAD challenge in an example drawing I had them create. I have encouraged them to continue using ChatGPT in lab every week since introducing this module to explore AutoCAD's robust functionality and troubleshoot their AutoCAD questions as a first resort. Finally, students completed a homework assignment asking them to explore use cases of AI in civil engineering.

Through these module components, students developed a better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of AI, practiced using AI as a study tool, problem-solved with AI within the context of an engineering design software program, and explored how they may be expected to use AI as a civil engineering professional. This supported student learning within the course, developed student study and problem-solving skills that will serve students in all future courses, and prepares students to leverage AI responsibly as future civil engineering professionals.

Assessment of the Redesign Project

The table below shows the changes I made to my course as a result of this re-design project. In the short term, I assessed student learning through the lecture demonstrations, through student feedback requested at the end of the lecture session, and through the homework assignment students completed following the lecture. In the last week of the semester, I will have students complete a quiz assessing their use of AI for studying and problem-solving based on what they learned from the new module content.

This table shows the changes I made to CE 4 as a result of the redesign project.
Lecture Content	Demonstrations	Homework
New lecture content was developed to introduce students to different AI tools and the capabilities/limitations of each. Students discussed concerns and opportunities.	Students participated in two demonstration activities. The first highlighted the use of AI as a study tool; the second asked students to use ChatGPT to troubleshoot a common AutoCAD problem.	Students completed a homework assignment which included responding to a recent article in a Civil Engineering magazine about the role of AI in civil engineering.

Reflection

Based on initial student feedback, students appreciated and felt they benefited from learning about different AI tools and their capabilities and limitations. Students responded well to both in-class demonstrations. They felt that the practice quiz they guided AI to develop for them was a helpful study tool. However, pressing AI to provide additional practice questions highlighted the limitations of AI and served as a warning for overreliance: most graphical questions that students tried to generate were incorrect, a result we discussed in class. On lab activities, students have continued to use ChatGPT to troubleshoot errors and explore AutoCAD functionality on their own. This allows me to focus on helping students with the most complex questions, while students practice articulating their needs and problem-solving with AI. As a next step, I will deliver a post-assessment survey in the last week of the semester following up on how students applied (or intend to apply) the content they learned in this AI module. In the long term, I hope to extend students' AI use to support their exploration of different disciplines with civil engineering and apply creative thinking on a final project of their creation.

Faculty Biography

This table includes my faculty biography.
	Dr. Amy Wyman recently joined the Department of Civil Engineering at Sacramento State University in Fall 2024 as an Assistant Professor of Transportation Engineering. Her research interests focus on human factors of the built environment, with specific emphasis on road user interactions, multi-modal transport, traffic control devices, and roadway design. Prior to joining Sacramento State, she worked as a Traffic Engineer in Phoenix, Arizona for a civil engineering consulting firm. Dr. Wyman holds BSCE, MS, and PhD degrees from Oregon State University. When she is not doing academic things, she enjoys baking and being outside.

**Program Sponsors**
	This work was supported by: Sacramento State Academic Affairs - Center for Teaching and Learning