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Bridging diverse institutions, multiple engineering departments, and industry: A case study in assessment planning

Journal of Engineering Education, Apr 1998 by McMartin, Flora, Van Duzer, Eric, Agogino, Alice

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While the process for creating consensus on how to assess was different from that used in Phase I, some of the principles remained the same. First, faculty and administrators, students, and the MIB were involved on a regular basis. Each participant was contacted individually in order to get his or her input regarding course information. All work by the team was public; during this phase, a web site was created (www.synthesis.org/assessment/ Assessment.html) and the working drafts were posted for review and comment. Where possible, each campus was visited by a member of the assessment team to review the proposed tools and processes. When such a visit was not possible, the campus assessment coordinators met and reviewed the proposed tools and processes. They passed on the information to the participating faculty and administrators on their campuses.

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The culmination of the work for Phase II came at a project leader meeting where the tools and process were formally presented to the Coalition. This meeting provided the participants an opportunity to review the process, discuss the plan, experience the assessment tools, and make recommendations for change. As always, this input was incorporated in the tools before initiating formal pilot testing.

The selection or development of appropriate assessment tools and processes, regardless of whether assessment is implemented at the course, department, or coalition level, must first be based on well defined and agreed upon student learning outcomes. Once articulated, faculty can more readily identify existing classroom practices that might be useful for assessment in addition to, or in lieu of, standardized testing. Assessment must be matched to the level of learning, e.g., multiple choice tests are unlikely to be good measures of complex learning processes.

Assessment tools and processes need to be tested in the circumstances where they will be used. In the case of the Synthesis Coalition, the results from each campus will be examined to check for bias that might result from manner of administration, self selection based on school population, and so on. Pilot testing serves multiple purposes: first, testing insures the assessment tools appropriately measure student learning, next they provide actual data and they help train faculty how to administer tools and analyze assessment results; and last, pilot tests are another means for collecting feedback about the process as a whole and how it might be improved or streamlined.

V. CHALLENGE: DETERMINING WHO AND WHICH COURSES TO ASSESS

In any one year nearly 5,000 students are enrolled in over 150 Synthesis-related courses at the seven campuses. A critical aspect of the planning process was developing a sample that would be both manageable and sufficient to answer our assessment questions. This process began by putting all of the degree programs into commonly formatted "Degree Maps." These maps arrange a program's required courses by grade (i.e., freshmen, sophomore, etc.) and identify the technical electives which satisfy a major's requirements. Within the maps, Synthesis courses were highlighted to provide the path of Synthesis related experience for each major. This map of courses was used to identify the level to which Synthesis courses had been integrated into the curriculum, types of electives, and grade level of courses that could be included in the Synthesis assessment plan. Maps also graphically illustrated the impact of Synthesis courses on a major based on a student's course selection.

Bridging diverse institutions, multiple engineering departments, and industry: A case study in assessment planning

Journal of Engineering Education, Apr 1998 by McMartin, Flora, Van Duzer, Eric, Agogino, Alice

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