Journal of Engineering Education Transformations

Deepesh S. Kanchan ¹, Franco Aldrin Menezes ², Rolen Lionel Rodrigues ³

Affiliations
1 Electrical & Electronics Engineering Department, St Joseph Engineering College, Mangalore, IN
2 Electrical & Electronics Engineering Department, St Joseph Engineering College, Mangalore, Karnataka, IN
3 Electrical & Electronics Engineering Department, St Joseph Engineering College, Mangalore,, IN

Abstract

In recent literature on Engineering Education research, a significant amount of knowledge is shared on the effective design of Holistic and Analytic rubrics for Assessment. Although the designed rubrics are shared with the students, fair and consistent assessment of student performance cannot be ensured since the rubrics designed by the course instructor have not been validated by stakeholders like students from the previous batch who have taken the course, Alumni, and Industry. This study explores the refinement techniques for redesigning the assessment rubrics. The paper puts to test an Analytical rubric by taking relevant feedback from the stake-holders. The method of survey-based statistical analysis was adopted in redesigning the rubrics. A total of 188 students were asked to take up this survey. These participants included 70% of students from the Undergraduate Engineering background, 20% Alumni, and 10% industrial stake-holders. The findings of the survey and the ensuing statistical analysis prove that the stake-holders can actively take part in redesigning assessment rubrics by giving valuable feedback on rubrics criteria which are judgmental, qualitative and can lead to an inconsistent assessment of student performance. The survey was aimed at redesigning rubrics for assessment of online written assignments during the COVID crisis period. It was observed that the majority of students agreed with the quantitative criteria of the rubrics. Valid suggestions given by students on improving the qualitative criteria were incorporated in the new design.

Keywords

Rubrics Design, Assessment, Stake-Holders, Assignment.

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Franco Aldrin Menezes ¹, Rolen Lionel Rodrigues ¹, Deepesh S. Kanchan ¹

Affiliations
1 Electrical & Electronics Engineering Department, St Joseph Engineering College, Mangalore, Karnataka, IN

Abstract

Electrical Engineering Education needs the students to have prior knowledge of mathematical tools and analytical skills which warrants the need for collaborative learning. This paper explores the impact of collaborative learning strategies on the academic performance of students in electrical and electronics engineering. The purpose of this paper is to assess the learning of students in courses with a high quotient of analytical thinking and reasoning. The objective is to enhance the learning of students through creative and collaborative activities designed to ignite young minds. Homogeneous groups were formed and instructions related to collaborative activity were read out in class and made available on the learning management system. Students are given five to eight days for submission of results, interim evaluation, and preparation of presentation which is assessed based on published rubrics. The impact of collaborative learning strategies discussed in this paper is targeted towards the positive growth of individual students acquiring technical and managerial skills. The technical training conducted for students necessitates them to have prerequisite knowledge of foundation courses. It is observed that the students who have experienced collaborative learning methods have performed better during technical training. The collaborative activities have shown a positive response from students in the classroom and their performance in exams has improved. Group activities like chart-making, case-based learning, project-based learning and role play exercise can be planned for few topics in any engineering course design to ignite young minds towards technical topics discussed in theoretical courses with no practical content.

Keywords

Collaborative Learning, Chart Building, Role Play, Case Based Learning, Project Based Learning.

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