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，学生需要反复实践才能达到预期的学习和掌握水平。 然而，这种重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复制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，他们经常记住一些解决问题的方法，并在考试中“塞chug”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，以为他们理解了材料，而实际上他们并不理解。 这种错误的理解感可以通过强调少数高风险考试的典型评估技术来延续。 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。 该项目将把基于掌握程度的评估方法的部署和评价扩大到更多的工程课程和另外两所大学。通过提高工程专业学生解决问题的能力，该项目有可能提高工程专业人员的技术能力。该项目的总体目标是充分调查掌握为基础的评估方法对学生学习的影响，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。 此外，该项目将评估结构支持的效果，如旨在减少教师采用掌握为基础的评估障碍的测试中心。 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州大学。 学生的学习将被评估比较，使用传统的评估策略，并在随后的类学生的表现。 还将对来自代表性不足和高危人群的学生评估基于掌握程度的评估对学生学习的影响，以确定这种方法有效性的潜在差异。学生的评价技术的看法也将进行研究。 为支持更广泛地采用这一技术，将采用一项计算机化测试设施战略，使用大型问题库，因为这需要管理更多的考试。测试设施对教师的工作量和掌握为基础的评估方法的看法的影响将进行调查。 该项目将支持完善以掌握为基础的评估方法，增强基于计算机的测试设施以支持重复测试，并扩大对该技术功效的评估。 这些努力有可能提高学生在工程方面的成功，并提高他们解决问题的能力。 该项目得到了NSF改善本科STEM教育计划的支持：教育和人力资源，该计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。 该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.