Innovative Assessment Tools For Effective Engineering Education
Mr. Dileep.P1, Ms. Rejitha. R2
1,2
Lecturer, Dept. of Electronics and Communication, Toc H Institute of Science & Technology,
Arakkunnam
Abstract
Assessment is a critical step in determining the
effectiveness of all processes. At present, the whole
educational system is oriented towards achieving its
primary goal which is the student achievement. The real
goal of the technical education is often kept concealed
while evaluating through the existing assessment
methods. We propose a system which gives Importance to
innovative testing methods for reflecting what really a
technician is meant to be. To realize this, some of the
existing assessment methods should be eliminated, and
the existing tools should be modified with valuable
additions from the experts. In this paper, the
shortcomings of the existing assessments are mentioned.
We discuss the need for a creative assessment technique
for engineering education. Since engineering education is
more oriented on practical testing and evaluation, a
problem solving skill development should be grown on
every student for each of the courses during the program.
The assessment should be focused on implementation of
real time projects and application oriented assessing
techniques. The skill for doing real time projects for a
specific course from the curriculum should be started
from the beginning of the program itself. Also this paper
proposes that the one of major inputs for the assessment
must be received from the industrialists also.
Key Words: Curriculum, self learning, scoring
scheme, time critical.
1. Introduction
In the current scenario of technical education the
student testing tools, which follows a common pattern in
most of our technical universities must be put under
scrutiny. The technical teaching involves most of the time
class room lecturing, some seminar activities by experts,
and some industrial visits or may be as self study through
given assignments. For many students, grades constitute
the number-one academic priority and the current
evaluating system is oriented towards giving grades to
students based on their performances in written
examinations. And this examination most of the time
serves only one purpose that is just taking the Xerox of
the text book. And the real goal of engineering is missing
in these examinations. Here we address these problems
and suggest some remedial measures to improve the
quality of technical education through innovative testing
methods.
2. Desirable features of technical student
evaluation.
In this section we will identify the basic skills that are to
be tested. The testing may be confined to different levels
as follows.
2.1. Basic Subject Knowledge.
The fundamental requirement of technical evaluation is
the testing of basic subject knowledge.
2.2. Problem solving skills.
The capability of applying basic subject knowledge to
solve a practical engineering problem must be assessed.
The designing skills of a student for a practical
application must also be assessed.
2.3. Self learning capability
Learning is a never ending process. The capacity of
student to learn by himself shall be accounted for.
2.4. Creativity
The creativity which helps new inventions and
innovations, shall be assessed properly
2.5. Trouble shooting under a pressurized and
time critical situation.
In the real-time environment most of the engineering
tasks are carried out in time critical situations. There shall
be an effective system to test the performance of student
in these kinds of situations.
2.6. Effectiveness in conveying technical ideas
Clarity in conveying technical ideas or concepts shall
be assessed.
2.7. Latest Industrial exposure
3. Overview of the existing system
If we look into the curriculum of technical universities
in the country, most of them include a major share of text
book study, a few practical sessions and one or two
project implementations. The evaluation procedure is also
mentioned in the curriculum. It can be summarized like
1. Written examination
2. Practical sessions
3. Seminar activities
4. Project activities
5. Given Assignments
6. Attendance
Of these the important thing our student considers is
the written examination because a good performance in
that will give him a good grade and so good recognition.
But the written examination is often deceptive for an
engineering student in the sense it serves only as a
memory checker most of the time. Practical session or
laboratory sessions are also predefined and the creativity
an engineer must have is missing in the current approach.
One of the important parts of the technical education
people say is project activities by the student. And in the
current system we allocate comparatively less time for the
most important thing. Changing the entire curriculum may
not be the solution but if we just change the way in which
we evaluate our student so that we can improve the
digestion of the subject for the student.
4. Proposed System of evaluation
By altering the testing tools prevailing in the engineering
education most of the problems can be addressed.
4.1 Key points suggested
The improvements to the current system as well
as some additions are discussed below.
1. Making the examinations more problems
oriented since in practical life engineers faces
them a lot.
2. The frequency of testing shall be more with less
content.
3. A platform for creative design of technical study
should be included and tested well.
4. Include a self learning course throughout the
curriculum.
5. Evaluation of the students must be also done by
the expert from industry.
6. Evaluate a student under time critical conditions
4.1.1 Making the examinations more problems
oriented. The common practice now we follow in the
examination is asking questions which are purely memory
based. No level of creative thinking is involved either in
preparing questions or answering them. So questions
should be framed in such way that students must think
before they answer. And the questions may have direct
relationship with the problems an engineer faces in the
real time situation. For this the faculty must have some
industrial experience. This can be addressed by
institutions engaging its faculties for short term industrial
exposure. Solving problems makes the student more
competitive and prepares the student to meet the expected
challenges in engineering life.
4.1.2 The frequency of testing shall be more with less
content. The students shall be tested more frequently than
the current scenario. The content of test must be moderate
enough for the student to apply what he has learned. The
test shall include problem oriented questions which test
the understanding level of the subject taught in the class.
This won’t be a burden for the students since in the short
span of time they can recollect well and apply the
knowledge they have in any practical problems. These
tests can be used for a continuous evaluation of the
students and can be used for their grading. The current
memory testing assessment can be avoided by this
method.
4.1.3 Organize a platform for creative design of
engineering learning. Our practical sessions come under
this category. But now they don’t seem to be fulfilling
their purpose. The laboratory shall be a platform for the
students where they test what they have studied. There
shall not be any specific syllabus for practical sessions.
Syllabus may be broader. The faculty associated with
practical session shall only guide the students to use the
equipments and motivate them for experimenting with.
The fact that all the engineering inventions or theories are
the results of some experiments should be kept in mind
when designing a practical session. Predefined practical
sessions are found to be obsolete. Then the student may
be evaluated through some criteria. That is he might be
doing some verification of what he had studied , may be
finding some wrong results which in turn insist him to
learn more about the subject or some time coming up with
some new ideas. So these records may be kept as his
laboratory record and can be used for evaluation purpose.
4.1.4 Include a self learning course in the curriculum.
Each student must be aware of the state of the world in
which they are living. The curriculum may not catch up
with the technological growth. So we shall include a
course in which we can test the student’s inquisitiveness
towards the evolving ideas around him. For this to be
fulfilled the faculties can guide him through a list of
standard journals or websites. Each semester this can be
evaluated through viva voce etc.
4.1.5 Evaluation of the student by the expert from
industry. The engineering education produces human
resources which are utilized by the industry. So in the
design of testing tools the industry should also participate.
A student must be evaluated by an expert from industry.
Viva voce can be used as an effective tool when we have
an expert in a particular area with more practical
knowledge. So each educational institution shall tie up
with industries to provide training to its students and to
evaluate them. So that the end product of the engineering
education can be well tested.
4.1.6 Evaluation of the student in time bound
operations. In the real time operations in any engineering
field, time plays an important role. Or working under
pressure is common. A testing tool shall be developed to
assess the student’s performance under time critical
conditions.
4.2 Scoring Scheme
The scoring scheme of the course shall also modified to
reflect the different testing methods. The scores of the
students tested in various levels shall be published
separately which help in assessing the student by an
external agency. In the current system the student is
evaluated according to the cumulative grade he has, but in
the proposed system the scores are distributed along
different methods used for assessment.
5. Conclusion
Inspecting the current system of student evaluation in
technical institution we found that the system doesn’t
really serve the purpose it is designed for. The proposed
system foresees the engineering aspects of a student
which helps him in his personal career as well as for the
industry he is working for. Detailed comparative study is
not performed in this paper. Up on doing that a specific
model for the engineering student testing tool can
modeled
6. References
[1]. Diane M. Enerson, Kathryn M. Plank, and R. Neill
Johnson.” An introduction to classroom assessment
techniques” .Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence.
University Park, PA, 2007.
[2]. Heiner, Matthias, Schneckenberg, Dirk and Wildt,
Johannes “innovative teaching andlearning strategies in
ICT-environments, The CEVU Workgroup online
pedagogy, 2001.
[3]. Thomas A. Angelo’s and K. Patricia Cross’ book,
“Classroom Assessment
Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers”2001.