Exam Wrappers, Reflection, and Student Performance in Engineering Mechanics – Part II

Abstract

FGCU). She earned a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 2004 with the Rensselaer Medal award and as a member of the inaugural class of Gates Millennium Scholars. In 2011, she earned a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Rice University. Before joining FGCU in 2015, she was a visiting Assistant Professor of Biotechnology in the Division of Science and Technology at the United International College (UIC) in Zhuhai China. She has been exploring and applying evidence-based strategies for instruction since her training with ASCE's Excellence in Civil Engineering Education (ExCEEd) initiative in 2016. In addition to the scholarship of teaching and learning, her research interests and collaborations are in the areas of biomaterials, cellular mechanotransduction, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine.

Examining the Efficacy of Exam Wrappers in a Computer Science Course

“…The impact on exam performance and affective behavior columns highlight findings from the papers rather than give an exhaustive list of findings. Several studies did not find any significant impact on average exam scores when using exam wrappers [7,8,9,10,11,14]. We observe that every study that examined the grades of the lowest performing students reported meaningful improvements in performance on later exams for students who completed exam wrappers [3,14,17].…”

“…There are several engineering and computing education studies that found no impact on student performance [7,8,9,10,11,14], while there are others that have [5,15,17], including the study described here. It would be interesting to study the factors that contribute to successful (and unsuccessful) student usage of exam wrappers [18].…”

“…In a follow-up study, Badir et al [11] added tracking of individual performance and added three categories for types of errors to their exam wrapper: precision, foundation, and knowledge. They considered other factors such as preparation (previous course work) and engagement in and outside of class.…”

“…The exam wrappers presented by Badir et al [10,11] are extensive. They include questions about engagement as well as detailed subject matter questions.…”

A Blend Flex Engineering Mechanics Course

“…Additionally, although Exam Wrappers did not seem to increase exam scores and performance; overall, having students fill out quiz and Exam Wrappers did seem to foster reflection and adjustment in most participants [5]. They encourage students to think about their study habits, the types of errors they tend to make, and the variety of ways that they are or could be engaged in the course [6]. And finally, after a year-long experiment, it was concluded that requiring students to submit homework for a grade did not improve exam performance over students who were not required to submit homework for a grade [7].…”