By: Jana Crouch

The U.S. Department of Education has funded a three-year, $2.1 million project for Colorado State University and partner institutions to create and expand access to interactive visualizations for engineering courses, saving students an estimated $75,000 a year while increasing accessibility and comprehension.

The project, “Visualize Engineering Concepts Through Open Resources (VECTOR),” is a collaborative effort led by CSU and includes Colorado State University Pueblo and Colorado School of Mines. Across the three campuses, experts in open educational resources, statics, mechanics of materials, and dynamics will pool their collective knowledge to establish a library of open-source interactive engineering visualizations and models.

Grasping academic engineering content can be a challenge, particularly complex spatial and mechanical concepts. Additionally, students bring a variety of backgrounds, learning styles, and abilities to classrooms. VECTOR will create interactive visualizations that bring theoretical concepts to life, making abstract ideas tangible while also ensuring accessibility through alternative formats and descriptive text.

“The application of these engineering concepts is not just to complete a homework problem,” said Daniel Baker, VECTOR co-director and statics expert. “Practicing engineers apply these principles every day, and we want to help students learn them more efficiently, plus provide the connections to the real world.”

“What I love about the VECTOR project is that it expands upon successful efforts from each of the three universities,” said Susan Reynolds, VECTOR mechanics of materials expert and teaching professor of civil and environmental engineering at Mines. “The Seeing Structures project has already transformed how students apply 3D engineering theory to practical, real-world examples. The shared vision of the VECTOR project will enable us to reach a wider range of teachers and learners than any of us could have done on our own.”

With a growing demand for professional engineers, reducing barriers to engineering education has become not just a goal but an imperative. Finances remain a prohibiting factor with engineering textbooks often exceeding $250 each.

Baker, teaching associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at CSU, has first-hand knowledge of the impact of open educational resources. In 2020, he led a group of authors to publish the open-source textbook, Engineering Statics, accessed more than 1.1 million times by more than 300,000 unique users in the past year. Baker received the CSU Libraries’ inaugural Open Educator Award in 2022 for his work on the textbook.

“Saving students money is an underlying goal of open educational resources,” said Baker. “We’re opening doors for accessing the content continuously, not as a rental textbook that has to be returned, and reducing cost so students don’t have to choose between buying groceries or buying their textbooks.”

CSU-Pueblo is a designated Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), supporting historically underrepresented student populations, and CSU is an emerging HSI. The project emphasizes inclusivity through accessibility and affordability, aiming to reduce barriers for minority students entering the engineering field.

“All engineering students, especially our students at CSU-Pueblo, will benefit tremendously from this project. We are dedicated to making the learning of fundamental engineering concepts more engaging by providing interactive and computational models for exploration and real-world examples,” said Trung Duong, VECTOR dynamics expert and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at CSU-Pueblo.

The high-quality educational resources developed through the project will be accessible at no cost to everyone: students at all levels, engineering educators, practicing engineers, and the curious individual with an internet connection.

“The focus on engineering is particularly useful because there aren’t too many open educational resources out there in this area and course-related software and materials can be expensive. These applications will be helpful to students all over the world,” said Meg Brown-Sica, VECTOR co-director and open educational resource expert. Brown-Sica serves as the associate dean for research & engagement at the CSU Libraries.

An estimated annual savings of $75,000 is expected for students at the three partner institutions alone. The content library will be freely available through platforms such as OER Commons, the Colorado State Library OER directory, and Mountain Scholar, ensuring that educators and students across the globe can benefit from these innovative resources.

“The team envisions a new standard for future engineering education – one that is accessible, inclusive, and engaging,” said Baker.