Description

Most colleges in the United States use end-of-term course assessment as the main feedback mechanism from students. By using this method of summative assessment, students are able to rate the course, the performance of the instructor, and what they have learned in the course, among other things. One drawback of the end-of-term feedback is that the current students are not able to benefit from any improvements in the course that may result from their feedback. To overcome this drawback, the author explores in this paper the use of ongoing assessment of student understanding of course topics throughout the quarter using module surveys. In this paper, the author presents the advantages of the ongoing assessment technique, the survey data from online and on-campus sections of the author?s structural analysis course, and feedback from students regarding the effectiveness of the module surveys. This continuous improvement process has been successfully adopted in the author?s structural analysis, structural steel design and reinforced concrete design courses. The analysis of the data obtained from administering this survey to students in the structural analysis course is presented. Based on the survey data and the students? feedback, it can be concluded that ongoing formative assessment methods enhance student learning and should be adopted in Engineering Technology (ET) courses as one way of satisfying the ?closed loop? continuous improvement process now required by the accrediting agencies.

Date of creation, presentation, or exhibit

6-12-2005

Comments

Presented at the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition (ASEE), Portland, OR, June 12-15, 2005. https://peer.asee.org/14703

Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works in February 2014.

Document Type

Presentation

Department, Program, or Center

Civil Engineering Technology Environmental Management and Safety (CAST)

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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