Effect of Multiple Choice Testing on Student  Performance in an Introductory Engineering Course

Peuker, Jennifer M; Brock, Jennifer McFerran; Peuker, Steffen

doi:10.18260/1-2--19475

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…For each question we created multiple choice answers, including distracters. 11 In addition, each question included a feedback. Feedback for each problem included the correct solution and a detail procedure to solve the problem.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Distracters or wrong answers need to be included in the multiple choice answers so that students cannot just easily guess the answers instead of solving the problems. 11 In addition, for each homework problem the instructor can create a complete solution that is given to students to learn from their mistakes. From the point of view of the instructor this is time consuming; however, by creating online homework instructors can improve students' learning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Experiment to Enhance Signals and Systems Learning by Using Technology Based Teaching Strategies

Verdin

Borries

Nava

et al.

2014 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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An Experiment to enhance Signals and Systems learning by using technology based teaching strategiesThe University of Texas at El Paso teamed with the "Signal Processing Education Network," (SPEN), which consists of academic, industry and professional community. SPEN, an NSFsponsored effort, is based on four technologies: Connexions, interactive simulation tools, Quadbase question/answer system and OpenStax Tutor. It seeks to develop materials that allow educators to break away from traditional textbook-lecture-homework education, and create a new framework based on an engaged community of educators, students, and industry professionals that continuously collaborate, improve and explore interactive content. The initial effort focuses on one strategic subdiscipline in electrical engineering, signal processing, but the framework can be applied to engineering education at all levels: high school, university (undergraduate and graduate) as well as continuing education.During the Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 semesters, UTEP implemented the use of Connexions, interactive examples, Quadbase system, and OpenStax Tutor in a sophomore course on Continuous-Time Signals and Systems. We organized existing material pertinent to the course into learning modules, created problems with associated solutions in Quadbase and developed interactive simulations in Mathematica to help students more effectively learn concepts with which they had difficulties. In addition, we used the assessment system provided by OpenStax Tutor to track and evaluate students' progress.OpenStax Tutor facilitates the instructors' work by automatically grading student work and exporting the grades to a spreadsheet. It also provides statistics of students' performance, e.g., reporting the time taken to complete specific assignments. These statistics enable assessment of overall class performance as the semester progresses.The feedback from students, gathered through a modified version of the SALG instrument, demonstrated that they enjoyed and learned the material better by using technology tools. The assessment of the learning gains of students in the Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 semester demonstrated an increase in the assessed learning outcomes compared to the Summer 2012 semester, where the tools were not used.The use of technology tools can address multiple situations in engineering education: limited opportunity for active learning; limited opportunity for laboratory activities that are interesting or relate to students' ideas about their "real world"; lack of interactive learning demos; textbooks providing limited connections among topics; development of textbooks and course materials limited to a small number of authors; and rising textbook costs that present a financial burden for students, especially low-income students.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Experiment to Enhance Signals and Systems Learning by Using Technology Based Teaching Strategies

Verdin

Borries

Nava

et al.

2014 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The concept review quiz created for this study was motivated by the Dynamics Concept Inventory [11,9,12]. For this study the questions are open ended rather than multiple choice like the Dynamics Concept Inventory to avoid concerns about guessing and obtain a better measure of student understanding [13].…”

Section: Methods and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of a Concept Review Intervention on the Student’s Knowledge Retention and Demonstration of Pre-requisite Fundamental Concepts

Chauda,

Recktenwald

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

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Students achieve functional knowledge retention through active, spaced repetition of concepts through homework, quizzes, and lectures. True knowledge retention is best achieved through proper comprehension of the concept. In the engineering curriculum, courses are sequenced into prerequisite chains of three to five courses per subfield -a design aimed at developing and reinforcing core concepts over time. Knowledge retention of these prerequisite concepts is important for the next course. In this project, concept review quizzes were used to identify the gaps and deficiencies in students' prerequisite knowledge and measure improvement after a concept review intervention. Two quizzes (pre-intervention and post-intervention) drew inspiration from the standard concept inventories for fundamental concepts and include concepts such as Free Body Diagrams, Contact and Reaction Forces, Equilibrium Equations, and Calculation of the Moment. Concept inventories are typically multiple-choice, in this evaluation the concept questions were open-ended. A clear rubric was created to identify the missing prerequisite concepts in the students' knowledge.These quizzes were deployed in Mechanics of Materials, a second-level course in the engineering mechanics curriculum (the second in a sequence of four courses: Statics, Mechanics of Materials, Mechanical Design, and Kinematic Design). The pre-quiz was administered (unannounced) at the beginning of the class. The class then actively participated in a 30-minute concept review. A different post-quiz was administered in the same class period after the review. Quizzes were graded with a rubric to measure the effect of the concept review intervention on the students' knowledge demonstration and calculations. The study evaluated four major concepts: free body diagrams, boundary reaction forces (fixed, pin, and contact), equilibrium, and moment calculation. Students showed improvements of up to 39% in the case of drawing a free body diagram with fixed boundary condition, but continued to struggle with free body diagram involving contact forces.This study was performed at a large public institution in a class size of 240 students. A total of 224 students consented to the use of their data for this study (and attended class on the day of the intervention).The pre-quiz is used to determine the gaps (or deficiencies) in conceptual understanding among students. The post-quiz measures the response to the review and is used to determine which concept deficiencies were significantly improved by the review, and which concept deficiencies were not significantly improved by the concept review.This study presents a concept quiz and associated rubric for measuring student improvement resulting from an in-class intervention (concept review). It quantifies a significant improvement in the students' retrieval of their prerequisite knowledge after a concept review session. This approach, therefore, has utility for improving knowledge retention in programs with a similar, sequenced course design.

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Effect of Multiple Choice Testing on Student Performance in an Introductory Engineering Course

Cited by 2 publications

References 7 publications

An Experiment to Enhance Signals and Systems Learning by Using Technology Based Teaching Strategies

An Experiment to Enhance Signals and Systems Learning by Using Technology Based Teaching Strategies

Effect of a Concept Review Intervention on the Student’s Knowledge Retention and Demonstration of Pre-requisite Fundamental Concepts

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