IUCEE-IGIP

Engineering Educators’ Certification Program

Module 6: Effective Assessment

Subramaniam D. Rajan
and
Syed Khamruddin
KG Reddy College of Engineering & Technology, Hyderabad
 Who am I?

 Grew up in Jamshedpur
 B. Tech (Hons) in Civil Engineering from IIT,
Kharagpur
 MS and PhD from University of Iowa, Iowa City
 Professor of Civil, Aerospace and Mechanical
Engineering in Arizona State University, Tempe,
Arizona
 Teaching: Structural and computational mechanics,
STEM education, ABET accreditation
 Research: Constitutive modeling and laboratory
characterization of composite materials, finite
element analysis, design optimization, high-
performance software development
FULTON
schools of engineering
2 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Assistant Faculty: Syed Khamruddin

 Associate Professor, Electrical & Electronics

Engineering and Director, Center for Engineering
Education Development at KG Reddy College of
Engineering & Technology, Hyderabad
 Engineering Education: Assessment,
Collaborative Learning, On-Line Instructions on
EE, Faculty Development Programs on EE,
Leading iGLOBE-KGRCET
 Research: Electric drives, sensor-less motors

FULTON
schools of engineering
3 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Module: Effective Assessment

 November 14-27, 2016

 Design, Implementation and Feedback
 Week 1
– Understand the fundamentals of assessment
– Embed assessment in classroom instruction
– Effectively conduct in-class question time
– Design effective questions
 Week 2
– Create an assessment rubric
– Learn how to provide constructive feedback to the students
– Design assessment for large classes

FULTON
schools of engineering
4 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Module Objectives - I

This module will be delivered over two weeks. At the end of

the first week, the participants will be able to:
 Understand the fundamentals of assessment
 Embed assessment in classroom instruction
 Effectively conduct in-class question time
 Design effective questions

FULTON
schools of engineering
5 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Module Objectives - II

At the end of the second week, the participants will be

able to:
 Create an assessment rubric
 Learn how to provide constructive feedback to the
students
 Design assessment for large classes

FULTON
schools of engineering
6 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Poll Question

 Background: You are teaching a second-level course on

programming with object-oriented programming languages
in which C++ and Java are discussed (ASU: CSE205
Object-oriented Programming and Data Structures that has
CSE100 Principles of Programming with C++ and CSE110
Principles of Programming with Java as pre-requisites).
 Question: List clearly at least 2 advantages of Java over
C++.
 Is this a well-thought out question?
– Yes
– No

FULTON
schools of engineering
7 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 A Much Better Question

 Design, develop and test a class to sort real numbers

in Java and C++. Use the given programs to test each
class.
 What concepts are being tested?
– Understanding a problem statement – code specifications.
– Class design – code architecture.
– Data structure – arrays.
– Algorithm – sorting.
– Unit testing.

FULTON
schools of engineering
8 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Another example

 Background: You are teaching an introductory course on

circuits (ASU: EEE201 Circuits I).
 Questions:

http://www.electricalquizzes.com/electric-circuits/electric-circuits-mcqs

FULTON
schools of engineering
9 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 A Better Question?

I 1 4Ω 5Ω 3
1 2

V1= 20 V

The voltages at the 2Ω 3Ω

output terminals of
the DC circuit have
the values shown. I4
Compute the voltage V4= 0 4

at each junction and

the current in each
resistor.

FULTON
schools of engineering
10 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Lesson Plan

Lesson Title
1 Module Objectives & Outcomes
2 Twelve Principles of Assessment
3 In-Class Question Time
Blosser – Asking the Right Questions.pdf
McComas and Abraham – Asking More Effective Questions.pdf
4 Reading 1: Designing Tests to Maximize Learning
Assignment 1 Read the posted paper Richard Felder, Designing Tests to
Maximize Learning. Write a 2-3 page report as follows - (a)
summarize the posted paper, (b) take an exam that you have
designed and given your students and state how you would
revise the exam based on what you have read and understood
from the paper, and (c) show the old and revised exam.

FULTON
schools of engineering
11 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Lesson Plan

Lesson Title
5 Creating a Rubric
6 Rubrics & Evaluation
7 Assessing Team Projects
Rajan - Effective Assessment - Design Project 1 Fall 2014.pdf
Rajan - Effective Assessment - Design Project 2 Fall 2014.pdf
Rajan - Effective Assessment - Design Grading Rubric.pdf
Rajan - Effective Assessment - Oral Presentation Grading Rubric.pdf
Rajan - Effective Assessment -Technical Writing Grading Rubric.pdf
Rajan - Effective Assessment - Group_8_Final.xlsx
8 Additional Readings
Assignment 2 Take a course that you teach in which you design and administer an
assessment item - quiz, exam, laboratory activity, programming project,
design project etc. Iteratively design and refine both the assessment rubric
and the assessment item. Document the rubric and the assessment item in a
report justifying your design process for the rubric and the assessment item.
FULTON
schools of engineering
12 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Assessments in this Module

To successfully complete this module, the participants will

complete the following two activities:
 Week 1: Read the posted paper Richard Felder, Designing
Tests to Maximize Learning. Write a 2-3 page report as
follows - (a) summarize the posted paper, (b) take an exam
that you have designed and given your students and state
how you would revise the exam based on what you have
read and understood from the paper, and (c) show the old
and revised exam.

FULTON
schools of engineering
13 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Grading Rubric for Assignment 1

 Performance Indicators
– Summary of the paper (5 points)
– Revision of the exam paper (3 points)
– Old and revised papers (2 points)
 Total: 10 points

FULTON
schools of engineering
14 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Assessments in this Module

 Week 2: Take a course that you teach in which you design

and administer an assessment item - quiz, exam,
laboratory activity, programming project, design project
etc. Iteratively design and refine both the assessment
rubric and the assessment item. Document the rubric and
the assessment item in a report justifying your design
process for the rubric and the assessment item.

FULTON
schools of engineering
15 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Grading Rubric for Assignment 2

 Performance Indicators
– Written report (5 points)
– In-depth analysis of existing rubric (Bonus)
– In-depth analysis of existing assessment item (2 points)
– Improvements to existing rubric (3 points)
– Improvements to existing assessment item (3 points)
– Reflective analysis on the iterative changes (2 points)
 Total: 15 points + bonus points

FULTON
schools of engineering
16 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Evaluation

 Your work will be evaluated based on the following points

– Read and critically evaluate the work that other people have done -
do not reinvent the wheel
– Understand the roles of the instructor and the student
– Be willing to critically evaluate your teaching practices
– Be willing to change for the better
– Be willing to share your experiences (at the end of the course)

FULTON
schools of engineering
17 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Expectations

 Spend the right amount of time learning and doing the work
 Ask questions (Asking the Right Question!) to seek
clarification and ideas
 Document your work professionally
– Start with an outline.
– Correct grammar? Short, complete sentences? Spelling?
– Technical writing skills for technical reports?

FULTON
schools of engineering
18 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Importance of Technical Writing

 Please read the document “An Exhaustive Checklist for a

Technical Document (and musings on effective
assessment)”.

FULTON
schools of engineering
19 sustainable engineering and the built environment
 Poll Question

 A reliable way to measure a student’s mastery over a

topic cannot include the use of book(s) and/or class notes
by the students during the exam. In other words, open
book and notes exams cannot be reliably used as an
assessment tool.
– True
– False

FULTON
schools of engineering
20 sustainable engineering and the built environment