Evaluating the Work of Your Student

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Evaluating the Work of Your Student

• Jamil A. Khan, Ph.D., P.E.
• Associate Professor
• Mechanical Engineering

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TA TRAINING

• http//www.me.sc.edu/grad/TAtraining.html.

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Evaluation of this workshop

• Q1.
• What are the three important traits of a good
  teacher?
• Q2 Fill in the blank
• A carefully prepared detailed syllabus may
  prevent potential _______ during the semester
• Q3
• In one sentence, write down what you would want
  me to do differently if I were to teach this
  workshop again.

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Modeling Critical Thinking

• Assign open ended-problem
• Solution should meet some constraint but is not
  unique
• Brain storm ideas
• Encourage out-of-the-box thinking
• Let me hear your ideas

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Effective teaching

• Spotting students who are having unusual
  difficulty and directing them to USC resources
  for help
• How to gauge your impact on students
• Reading signs, seek feed back
• Ask questions outside the class (one on one)
• Is the end of the semester student evaluation
  sufficient? Isnt it end-of-the-pipe inspection?
• How to know when to make changes in teaching the
  class
• Syllabus
• Other changes
• Taylor your teaching at the level of your
  students
• Honors class teaching
• Balancing your own research, class schedule with
  teaching schedule

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Grading Student work(Why?)
The Shewhart Cycle
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Test Construction

• Dont go to outer space to pull test material
• Comment on trick question
• Test should show that you are meeting the course
  objectives
• Be concerned about the reliability of the test.
  Test questions should be clear.
• Have it checked out by your peers or by yourself
• Frequency of testing. I prefer frequent short
  tests leading to big test
• Make the test close to reality.
• In-class test are artificial
• I real life problem solving is different from
  in-class test

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Perspective

• Grades measure what is known at the time of the
  test
• Students are very interested in grades
• In fact way too much focus
• Quality of the instruction may be reflected in
  grades
• Dont teach like elementary school at the same
  time do not teach like a monster
• Remember learning is students responsibility,
  you can not do it for them
• You certainly can find out why a student is not
  learning

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Grading

• As a teacher you have to demonstrate that you
  have the ability to grade
• You can demonstrate this by helping the students
  continuously improve
• Do you have the credentials?
• Be unbiased
• Grade should reflect connection between what was
  asked and what was turned-in
• Grades are feed-back
• This feed-back should focus on the work not the
  person
• Separate the work from the student

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Testing students during the semester

• When to choose essay questions
• When to use short-answer questions
• Class size
• Pop quizzes
• Regular short quizzes (announced)

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Projects

• Are open ended but still has some limitations
  (constraint)
• Objective is to develop critical thinking
• Time constraint
• Know how far you can push the students
• Share the best method for completing the project
• It is always good to break-up the project into
  separate groups and assign weighted grades

• a

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Papers

• Teaches communication skills
• Follow proper format

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• Evaluating essays and answers to essay questions

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Oral Presentation

• What do you look for
• Introduction
• Problem statement
• Body language and delivery
• Technical contents
• Audio visual aid and its use
• Conclusions
• Question/answers

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Grading a Laboratory Report

• COMPONENTS REQUIRED
• 1. Title page - lab title, author(s), lab
  section, date
• 2. Objective
• 3. Actual data sheet - with observers and date of
  experiments
• 4. Sample calculations
• 5. Results (tabular and/or graphical)
• 6. Discussion of results
• 7. Conclusions
• PREPARATION GUIDELINES
• 1. Use white, unlined paper with no tattered
  edges.
• 2. Must be typed.
• 3. Graphs and tables should be professional
  quality. No free-handing of curves permitted.
  Coordinates should be neatly labeled. All
  figures must have a number and a title.