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Introduction and Invitation
Constructing resources for assessment and
instruction related to the eleven student outcomes contained in
Criterion 3 of the ABET Engineering Criteria requires contributions
across the entire engineering community. If you have one or more
resources (for example, helpful papers, survey forms, assessment
materials, instructional materials) for assessment and/or
instructional related to outcome b click here. Please indicate whether and how you
would like your contribution to be acknowledged. Thanks for
contributing the growing understanding of how we might help
engineering students develop knowledge and skills that they will
draw upon throughout their careers.
Learning Objectives
The first step in selecting assessment and instructional approaches
for a learning outcome is to formulate learning objectives that
support the outcome. Learning objectives describe expectations associated
with the outcome in terms of expected and observable performances.
Several researchers have already constructed learning objectives
and these may provide worthwhile starting points for others.
A team of researchers (Larry Shuman, Mary E. Besterfield-Sacre,
Harvey Wolfe, Cynthia J. Atman, Jack McGourty, Ronald L. Miller,
Barbara M. Olds, and Gloria M. Rogers) working a NSF-supported project,
Engineering
Education: Assessment Methodologies and Curricula Innovation,
used Bloom's
Taxonomy to develop and organize a set of learning objectives
for outcome 3b (desiging and conducting experiments and analyzing
and interpreting data) [1]. They developed learning
objectives for the six levels of learning in Bloom's taxonomy for
four different outcome elements:
- Designing experiments
- Conducting experiments
- Analyzing data
- Interpreting data
Felder and Brent [2]
offer sample learning objectives for each of the four preceding
outcome elements:
- Designing Experiments: Design an experiment to (insert
one or more goals or functions) and report the results (insert
specifications regarding the required scope and structure of the
report). Variants of this objective could be used in traditional
lecture courses as well as laboratory courses.
- Conducting Experiments: Conduct (or simulate) an experiment
to (insert specifications about the goals of the experiment) and
report the results (insert specifications regarding the scope
and structure of the report).
- Analyzing Data: Develop a mathematical model or computer
simulation to correlate or interpret experimental results (insert
specifications regarding the experiment and the data). The results
may be real data from a laboratory experiment or simulated data
given to students in a lecture course.
- Interpreting Data: List and discuss several possible
reasons for deviations between predicted and measured results
from an experiment, choose the most likely reason and justify
the choice, and formulate a method to validate the explanation.
McCreanor [3] described how faculty members in
the School of Engineering at Mercer University constructed profeciencies
for the same four outcome elements:
- Designing experiments: Develop a methodology which will
produce high quality data that can be used to evaluate a specific
process or parameter.
- Conducting experiments:
- Operate laboratory equipment appropriate to the course or
discipline
- Demonstrate appropriate laboratory technique and etiquette,
collect data
- Analyzing data:
- Organize data
- Perform appropriate data manipulations and calculations
- Ppresent final data in an appropriate format
- Interpreting data:
- Use good engineering judgement to determine if data is reasonable
- Draw appropriate conclusions from data,
Assessment Approaches
Under construction (18 January 2005)
Instructional Approaches
Under construction (18 January 2005)
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