Best Practices 

Our products have been used in a number of classrooms ranging from dedicated Spatial Visualization courses to Introduction to Engineering and Computer Aided Design (CAD) courses at the College, High School, and Middle School levels.  We have gained some experience in implementing the tool in the classroom and provide some best practices below. 

Promoting Student Persistence:

Our research has shown that student persistence is key to effective learning, and our software is designed to increase persistence. When a student gets an assignment incorrect, it is most beneficial if they try on their own first before asking for a hint. Please explain to your students that students who consistently hint and peek at the solution without a significant effort on their own will limit their learning.

To increase student persistence we have gamified the software. Students who get an assignment correct without help get 3 stars (no matter how many tries they have). If they use a hint, they get 2 stars. If they peek at the solution they get 1 star. Also, at the end of each lesson, there are 3 test assignments in which the hints are disabled.

To take advantage of these tools for increasing persistence:

Recommended Assignment Sets:

Teachers can assign any of the ~300 assignments in Spatial Vis as they would with a textbook. However, based upon the time available, we have proposed 3 options:

Full Load (~275 Assignments)

  • Introduction 

  • 9 lessons with test assignments at the end


Mid-Load (~150 Assignments)

  • Introduction 

  • Odd Assignments only for all 9 lessons 

  • Test assignments at the end of each lesson

Curated Mid-Load (~150 Assignments)

  • Introduction 

  • Hand-selected about half of the assignments in each lesson with emphasis on the easier assignments

  • Test assignments at the end of each lesson


Light-Load (~100 Assignments)

  • Introduction 

  • Odd Assignments for:

    • 2D Rotations (2D)

    • Iso Cubes (Iso)

    • Orthocubes (Ortho)

    • 2D to 3D (2D 3D)

    • Rotations about 1 Axis (1 Axis)

    • Rotations about 2 Axes (2 Axes)

  • Test assignments at the end of each of the above lessons

Integrating Grades

Teachers have access to a Teacher Interface where they can view student enrollments and download student grade reports. The grade reports are in a comma-separated values (CSV) format, which can be uploaded to almost all Learning Management Systems (LMSs).

Please contact us for any help with LMS integration.

Quantifying Improvement with Pre- and Post-Testing

The field of Spatial Visualization has greatly benefited from standardized testing. It is encouraged to implement a standard assessment at the beginning and end of the class to be able to demonstrate learning gains. This can aid in publications as well as help justify the benefits of spatial visualization training. In our research, we have primarily used the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test-Rotation (PSVT:R), which is a 20-minute multiple-choice test. Please contact us for any help with the assessment.