Asee peer logo

Student-designed Assessments in Electrical and Computer Engineering: From Student Perceptions to Their Mastery of Materials

Download Paper |

Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 6

Tagged Division

Electrical and Computer

Page Count

13

DOI

10.18260/1-2--37765

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/37765

Download Count

278

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Saharnaz Baghdadchi University of California, San Diego

visit author page

Saharnaz Baghdadchi is an Assistant Teaching Professor at UC San Diego. She is interested in scholarly teaching and uses active learning techniques to help students achieve expert-like level of thinking. She guides students in bridging the gap between facts and usable knowledge to solve complex engineering problems.

visit author page

biography

Leah Klement University of California, San Diego

visit author page

Leah Klement is an Education Specialist at the Engaged Teaching Hub, part of UC San Diego’s Teaching + Learning Commons. In this role, she works with faculty, staff, and graduate student educators to advance equitable, student-centered, and research-based teaching practices across campus. She also collaborates with faculty groups on education research and departmental assessment projects. Leah holds a B.A. in Classics and English from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University.

visit author page

biography

Rachel Bristol University of California, San Diego

visit author page

Rachel Bristol is a PhD candidate in UC San Diego’s Department of Cognitive Science, where she researches pragmatic aspects of expressing authority over knowledge in conversational interaction. She also works as a Graduate Teaching Consultant at UC San Diego's Engaged Teaching Hub where she is focused on learning and promoting evidence-based teaching practices.

visit author page

biography

Paul Andreas Hadjipieris University of California, San Diego

visit author page

Paul Hadjipieris is an instructional designer at the University of California San Diego. He holds an MA, in history from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. His research agenda is on emerging educational technologies and their application to the classroom. He is deeply involved in SoTL research at the University of California San Diego and currently working with faculty on course design and manuscript construction.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

The remote model of instruction, after the pandemic, highlighted the need for creative and versatile assessment methods in engineering education. Developing authentic methods of assessment with the potential to reinforce mastery of the materials through channels other than learning by preparing for the tests was of particular interest. One such method that we selected was student-designed exams. Developing well-designed engineering problems requires a mastery of the material, so we put students in charge of designing their exam problems to help them achieve a higher learning level. Students also participated in follow-up one-on-one meetings with an instructional team member, after each assessment, to receive feedback and answer questions related to their designed exam problems. Using the student-designed exams as an assessment method could offer other benefits, such as reducing academic integrity violations, since each student designs a unique test and submits the solutions to their designed questions. This assessment method was also helpful in reducing the anxiety associated with high-stakes tests.

In this paper, we explain the implementation of the student-designed exams in an Electrical and Computer Engineering course in a large public research university. We also discuss the format of the follow-up meetings, the grading scheme, students' perceptions of this assessment method, and the instructor's findings regarding the effectiveness of this intervention. In the feedback surveys, students mentioned that designing exam questions pushed them to pay more attention and master the concepts. They also reported that the follow-up meetings were beneficial in clarifying the confusing points and correcting their mistakes.

Baghdadchi, S., & Klement, L., & Bristol, R., & Hadjipieris, P. A. (2021, July), Student-designed Assessments in Electrical and Computer Engineering: From Student Perceptions to Their Mastery of Materials Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37765

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2021 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015