Longitudinal Assessment of External Experts and Teaching Assistants as a Class Resource
- Conference
- Location
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Tempe, Arizona
- Publication Date
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April 20, 2017
- Start Date
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April 20, 2017
- End Date
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April 22, 2017
- Conference Session
- Tagged Topics
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Diversity and Pacific Southwest Section
- Page Count
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18
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--29224
- Permanent URL
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https://strategy.asee.org/29224
- Download Count
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298
Paper Authors
Aldin Malkoc Arizona State University
Aldin Malkoc, MS is a student in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering at Arizona State University. Aldin is enrolled in the 4+1 program to receive his Masters of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Arizona State University in 2017 and will pursue a doctoral degree in Biomedical Engineering from Arizona State University in 2017. The primary focus in his master's thesis will pertain to the study of a point-of-care insulin sensor in biosensor development. Currently, Aldin is a graduate teaching assistant at the Fulton Schools of Engineering and wishes to develop effective engineering education strategies.
Mackenzie Honikel School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering at Arizona State University
Mackenzie Honikel, a current PhD student in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering at Arizona State University. Mackenzie graduated from SUNY Binghamton in May 2016 with a Bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering, concentrating in biomedical devices and biomaterials. Her background is in point-of-care diagnostic sensors, and she aims to continue this work during her time at Arizona State University. Her dissertation focuses on the development towards implantable cardiovascular sensors for continuous patient monitoring and reduced embolism formation at the site of implantation.
Jeffrey Thomas La Belle Arizona State University
Jeffrey T La Belle is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Health and Systems Engineering and the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. He holds adjunct status in the School of Energy and Matter Transport (Mechanical Engineering) as well as the College of Medicine at Mayo Clinic. He has a Ph.D. and Masters in Biomedical Engineering from ASU and a MS and BS in Electrical Engineering from Western New England University in Springfield Massachusetts. In the La Belle Group, we are currently developing electrochemical sensors for noninvasive glucose sensing, the novelty of our design is to obtain tear fluid for tear to blood glucose correlation in a noninvasive means to increase patient compliance. The next leap in technology for diabetes care is a multiplexed sensor that will add more depth of information for a self-monitoring blood glucose devices, here five accepted markers for DM care and management, including glucose, HbA1c, among others are simultaneously monitored on a single strip sensor. This technology we are developing could also allow for continuous and single use stress/trauma sensing technologies. Other applications of the sensing technologies include small molecule, DNA, protein, and whole cell detection to address changing climate in point-of-care technologies and medicine. On the activation side of our research, we are fabricating nitinol staggered muscle arrays that mimic skeletal muscle and we have recently demonstrated over 30% compression in our SMA’s similar to muscle bundles. Our approach to design is simple, following FDA guidelines and suggestions from the start, look at what the user needs and/or wants and apply a unique solution. We have a well-diversified group to tackle the challenges in health care today, staff and students come from biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, computer science engineering, as well as biology and chemistry programs at ASU. BME at ASU teaches a 8 semester wide medical device design tract that initiates the students in design, regulations, standards, IP and other aspects from day 1. Dr. La Belle has develop and courses and taught at the freshman, junior, senior and graduate level on these topics.
Abstract
To help with instructor teaching and student learning in STEM courses, various methods such as two-way formative feedback, flipped classrooms, and project-based learning have been used to enhance student learning, participation, attitude, and overall achievement. This longitudinal study, conducted over four consecutive semesters, assesses students' skills in innovation, prototyping, and design through a project-based course. Students were given 16 weeks to develop a functional gamma prototype that would be scored by external experts and teaching assistants. Furthermore, the scores would be compared to actual performance on a design challenge (DC). The gamma prototype is board game that functions as a teaching tool of the prototyping pathway for medical device design. The use of external experts and teaching assistants for validation asked the following research question: “Can external experts and teaching assistants effectively evaluate student performance in (1) innovation, (2) prototyping, and (3) design?”
The focus of the course is the development of a gamma prototype board game as a surrogate for enhancing skills needed in medical device design. In the course, students are placed into groups, and while completing the board game; students are encouraged to consider aspects of innovation, product design, prototyping, and fabrication. Throughout the 16-week course, students learn various bioengineering design, analysis, and decision-making techniques as well as the fundamentals of business and technical management. Additionally, student’s actually performance in innovation, prototyping, and design is measured based off the instructors scoring of the DC.
The board game prototype assessment by the external experts and teaching assistants is scored and grouped into innovation, prototyping, and design. The study compares student performance on the DC to scores given by external experts and teaching assistants. By comparing students’ actual performance on the DC to the prototype score, the grading accuracy of external experts and teaching assistants can be evaluated. This junior-level biomedical engineering course is tasked with not only teaching important concepts, such as innovation, prototyping, and design, but tighter evaluation of the learned concepts.
The data generated across four semesters showed statistical significance. Teaching assistants across semesters typically ranked students higher in the three categories than external experts. The percent change seen between external experts and teaching assistants was 19% for innovation, 26% for prototyping, and 15% for design. Furthermore, coefficient of variance for external experts was on average below 5% as compared to 10% for teaching assistants. The results from this study offer insight into the benefits of including external experts, as a resource to better evaluate student performance in innovation, prototyping, and design.
Malkoc, A., & Honikel, M., & La Belle, J. T. (2017, April), Longitudinal Assessment of External Experts and Teaching Assistants as a Class Resource Paper presented at 2017 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting, Tempe, Arizona. 10.18260/1-2--29224
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