1. Assessing Student Learning in EPICS

2. Assessing Student Learning: Outline
What to assess
Learning objectives and expectations
Artifacts – data to assess
Grading
Sr. Design Example

3. What to Assess
Students are given academic credit for mastering course content,
Not for the service they provide for the community
Students are therefore assessed on their demonstrated mastery of course content

4. Defining Learning Objectives
Started with ECE Senior Design: A student who successfully fulfills the course will demonstrate:
an ability to apply technical material from their discipline to the design of engineering products;
an understanding of design as a start-to-finish process;
an ability to identify and acquire new knowledge as a part of the problem-solving/design process;
an awareness of the customer in engineering design;
an ability to function on multidisciplinary teams and an appreciation for the contributions from individuals from other disciplines;
an ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences ;
demonstrates an awareness of engineering ethics and professional responsibility;
an appreciation of the role that engineering can play in social contexts .
Common set of outcomes across disciplines
Engineering  your discipline

5. Multidisciplinary Assessments
EPICS often requires multidisciplinary approaches
Assessing students from different areas requires their own learning objectives in their “own language”
Freshman vs senior
One vs two credits
Engineer vs Liberal Arts
Important to be specific about expectations and outcomes

6. Evaluation Rubric Competencies Beginning Developing Accomplished
Exemplary
Technical Skills
Design Process
Communication
Teamwork
Resourcefulness
Community
Awareness
Professional
ethics

7. Setting Expectations
Teams set goals for the semester through a project plan
Faculty advisor approves plan
Students set individual personal goals for each semester
Goals in week 4, updates weeks 8 and 12
Faculty advisor approves goals
Self assessments weeks 4, 8, 12 and 16

8. Artifacts: Data to Assess
Students produce artifacts that can be assessed during their EPICS experience
Design Notebooks
Reflections
Self-assessments
Presentations
Reports
Project documentation
Delivered projects
Manuals or other documentations with project

9. Design Notebooks & Documentation
Build a record (portfolio) of an individual’s work
Document individual progress
Capture reflection/metacognitive activities
Academic and service experience
Guidelines provided and evaluate during the semester
% of points on format and content
Discipline useful for later as professionals
Project documentation
Documents successes and achievements
Digital archive for projects

10. Assessing Team and Individual Work
Teams are assessed
Project plan
Customer/Partner feedback
Presentations and team reports
Individual artifacts assessed
Peer assessments
Summary of accomplishments
Individual Notebooks
Reflections
Design records - authored
Observations

11. “Dry Run” Grading = Calibration
Midsemester grading is a “dry run”
If the semester were to end today, you would receive a _____
All resources and artifacts evaluated
Self assessments evaluated
Students provided with a team and individual grade or range and comments
What would they have to do to improve?
Calibrates students and faculty
Problems can be identified early
Need for documentation reinforced

12. Final Grading Repeat process for dry run grades
Final self-assessment
Students receive comments and their grades
Use dry run evaluations as a basis
Students addressed concerns over the last half of the semester?
Emphasis on documentation
Do the artifacts represent their level of work?

13. ABET, Sr. Design and EPICS
EPICS projects are well-matched to the ABET criteria.
Customer-driven service learning means that each team has a different project and that each student may have a different role on the team.
This variability requires procedures for assessment, tracking, and documentation of projects and of student outcomes.

14. Senior Design and EPICS
Sr. Design option for
ECE, IDE and CS students
Two semesters of EPICS
Outcomes matrix
Demonstrate each has been met
Approvals, TA, Advisor, EPICS
Project Description
Approvals, Advisor, EPICS, ECE
Documents saved on Sharepoint Server (revision control)

15. EPICS and ABET
Fulfills capstone design requirement for Purdue BSEE, BSCmpE and BSIDE degrees
3 credits over 2 senior semesters
8 outcomes related to the Program Objectives & Outcomes
2 approval processes:
Significant design experience on a suitable project
Satisfaction of course outcomes by each student: “A student who successfully fulfills the course requirements associated with at least 3 credits of EPICS taken over 2 or more semesters will …”

16. Project Approval Project Description Form:
Team & project name
Project members, majors, expertise
Project & customer summary
How builds on earlier ECE courses
New technical knowledge acquired
Multidisciplinary nature
How project involves professional component (criterion 4) constraints
One form per project w/ senior design students per semester
Reviewed/approved by team advisor, EPICS administrators, ECE Senior Design committee

17. Outcomes Certification
Documenting Outcomes:
Deliverables
Design notebook
Design reviews
Reports
Presentations
Weekly reports
Customer feedback
Peer evaluation
Self assessment

18. Outcomes Certification
Outcomes record maintained by students
Reviewed twice per semester by TAs and team advisor: incremental approval
Semester-end and year-end review by EPICS administration
Reviews:
Approval of outcomes and documentation
Redirect student’s efforts