Investigating the Effects of a Mastery-based Assessment Approach on Undergraduate Engineering Education across Multiple Engineering Courses and Universities

该项目旨在通过提高工科学生解决问题的能力和对工程原理的理解来服务于国家利益。在工程教育中，学生需要反复练习才能达到预期的学习和掌握水平。然而，这种反复练习的机会通常是有限的，学生经常选择需要较少努力的学习方法。例如，学生可能会试图通过抄袭作业问题的解决方案来学习一些东西，而不是自己解决问题。此外，他们经常背诵一些解决问题的方法，并在考试中“插拔”以获得部分学分。这两种学习策略都是无效的，但它们会给学生一种错觉，认为他们理解了材料，但他们并不理解。这种错误的理解感可能会被强调几个高风险考试的典型评估技术所延续。为了提高学生真正的概念理解和解决问题的能力，密歇根州立大学的教育工作者在有限数量的课程中实施了以掌握为基础的评估方法。这种方法提高了学生解决问题的能力，并鼓励他们使用更有效的学习习惯。该项目将把以掌握为基础的评估方法的部署和评估扩展到其他工程课程和另外两所大学。通过提高工科学生的问题解决能力，本项目有可能提高工程工作人员的技术能力。本项目的总体目标是在不同的工程主题、不同的学习环境和不同的学生群体的背景下，充分调查以掌握为基础的评估方法对学生学习的影响。此外，该项目还将评估结构性支持的效果，例如旨在减少教师采用掌握能力评估的障碍的测试中心。基于掌握的评估方法将在三所大学的多个基础工程课程(静力学、材料强度、动力学和热力学)中实施：密歇根州立大学、伊利诺伊大学和马里兰大学。学生学习的评估将与使用传统评估策略的课程进行比较，并根据学生在后续课程中的表现进行评估。还将评估以掌握能力为基础的评估对学生学习的影响，评估来自代表性不足和处于危险中的人群的学生，以确定这一方法有效性方面的潜在差异。学生对评估技术的看法也将被研究。为了支持这项需要管理额外考试的技术的更广泛实施，将使用大型题库部署基于计算机的考试设施战略。将调查测试设施对教师工作量的影响以及对以掌握为基础的评估方法的看法。该项目将支持改进以掌握为基础的评估方法，加强以计算机为基础的测试设施，以支持重复测试，并扩大对该技术有效性的评估。这些努力有可能提高学生在工程方面的成功，并增强他们解决问题的技能。该项目得到了NSF改善本科生STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源的支持，该计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving engineering students’ problem-solving skills and understanding of engineering principles. Within engineering education, students need repeated practice to achieve the expected level of learning and mastery. However, such opportunities for repeated practice are typically limited and students frequently choose learning approaches that require less effort. For example, students may try to learn something by just copying solutions to homework problems, rather than solving the problems by themselves. In addition, they often memorize a few problem-solving approaches and “plug & chug” on an exam to earn partial credit. Both learning strategies are ineffective, but they can give students an illusion that they understand the material when they do not. This false sense of understanding can be perpetuated by typical assessment techniques that emphasize a few, high stakes exams. To increase students’ authentic conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills, educators at Michigan State University have implemented a mastery-based assessment approach in a limited number of courses. This approach improved students’ problem-solving ability and encouraged them to use more effective study habits. This project will expand the deployment and evaluation of the mastery-based assessment approach to additional engineering courses and to two additional universities. By improving engineering students’ problem-solving skills, this project has the potential to enhance the technical capability of the engineering workforce.The overall goal of the project is to fully investigate the effects of a mastery-based assessment approach on student learning, in the context of different engineering topics, different learning environments, and different student populations. In addition, the project will evaluate the effects of structural supports such as testing centers that are designed to reduce barriers to faculty adoption of mastery-based assessment. The mastery-based assessment approach will be implemented in multiple foundational engineering courses (statics, strength of materials, dynamics, and thermodynamics) at three universities: Michigan State University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Maryland. Student learning will be assessed in comparison to courses that use traditional assessment strategies and in terms of student performance in subsequent classes. The impact of mastery-based assessment on student learning will also be evaluated for students from underrepresented and at-risk populations to identify potential disparities in the effectiveness of this approach. Student perceptions of the assessment technique will also be studied. To support broader implementation of this technique, which requires the administration of additional examinations, a computer-based testing facility strategy will be deployed using large repositories of questions. The impact of the testing facility on faculty workload and perceptions of the mastery-based assessment approach will be investigated. This project will support the refinement of the mastery-based assessment approach, enhance computer-based testing facilities to support repeated testing, and expand the evaluation of the technique’s efficacy. These efforts have the potential to increase student success in engineering, as well as enhance their problem-solving skills. This project is supported by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.