Teaching Engineering

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Teaching Engineering
by
Wankat and Oreovicz
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ORGANIZATION

• TESTING
• HOMEWORK
• GRADING
• CHEATING
• DISCIPLINE
• ETHICS

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TESTING
Requires careful thought.
Increases student motivation and satisfaction
Student resentment, cheating, aggressive behaviour
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Characteristics of testing?
Students study harder Practice problem
solving Offers feed back Tests are stressful
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What can be done to harvest the benefits of tests
while simultaneously reducing the stress they
induce?
GIVE MORE TESTS
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Frequent Tests ()

• Stress is reduced
• Spreads student work
• Increases student effort
• Improves retention
• Helps grading

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Frequent Tests (-)

• Decrease in class time
• Time lost in questions/grading
• Discourages students to be independent

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Frequency of Tests

• Graduate level
• 2/3 tests in a semester
• Project

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Frequency of Tests

• Senior level
• 3/4 tests in a semester
• Some quizzes

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Frequency of Tests

• Junior level
• 6/7 tests in a semester
• More quizzes

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Final Test

• Not liked by students
• Feed back for the professor is late
• Knowing the unanswered questions
• Optional
• Current grade can improve

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Coverage on a test

• Prepare a matrix (Topics vs. levels)
• Represents lectures/homeworks
• Open book/Close book
• A sheet by the instructor

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Writing test problems

• Avoid trivial/trick questions
• Problems should be unambiguous
• Time required
• Indicate points for each
• Solve the problem
• May include homework problem
• Interesting problems
• Clones of text book

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Test problems .

• Problems from other text books
• See combinations of variables
• Contact other universities
• Start working from the begining

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Type of questions

• Short-answer
• Long-answer
• Multiple choice
• True-false
• Matching

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Administering the test

• Discuss content coverage
• Discuss type of test
• Show old problems
• Declare closed/open book
• Tips on studying

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Administering the test .

• Special classes
• Be present in the test
• Come early
• Ask TAs to come
• Large class-Covered sheet
• Announce time remaining, periodically
• Count answer sheets

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Scoring

• Dont see the name
• Creative solution/wrong answer
• Grade one question for all students
• Partial marking for long-type questions
• Mark the wrong and comment
• Feed back just after the test
• Scores on next class
• Discuss solution in the class
• Meet very weak students privately

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SCORE IS PRIVATE
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Critiquing the test

• Evaluate your questions
• H Answered by top 10
• L Answered by bottom 10
• H-Lgt0 (positive discrimination)
• HL should be 7-17

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Critiquing the test.

• Normalize the scores
• Z score Zi(xi-xm)/s
• T score Ti10Zi50
• Not valid for small class
• Extreme scores are misleading
• Interprete carefully

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Scoring errors

• Allow regrades
• Addition
• Student believes his/her method is correct
• Uniform grading

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Homework

• Trouble shooter
• Help learn study ,aterial
• Know the skills
• Strongly related to test scores
• Should cover all levels of problems
• Appropriate weightage
• Late submission
• Provide solution

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Project

• Integrating ideas
• Cannot be covered in lectures/tests
• Report writing
• Presentation skills
• Visible output
• Objective of the project
• Set series of dead lines
• Appropriate weightage

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Grading

• I cannot satisfy everyone

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Purpose of grades

• Index for student accomplishment
• Student knows
• Communication to others
• Predictor for future performance

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Grading Methods

• More scores help in grading
• Listen to the student if (s)he has a complain

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Grading scales (T-scores)

• Grade Poor Avg. Expl.
  Graduate
• A gt69 gt 63 gt 57 gt 55
• B 59-68 53-62 47-56 45-54
• C 49-58 43-52 37-46 35-44
• D 39-48 33-42 27-36 25-34
• F lt38 lt 32 lt 26 lt 24

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Grading

• Grade on a curve
• Decide avg. grade
• Look for gaps in scores
• Benefit of doubts

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Cheating

• Must not be tolerated in any form
• Prevention is better than cure
• Create an environment
• Know the names of all students
• Reduce anxiety on tests
• Common sense security measures

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Cheating

• Modern devices
• Take action immediately if there is cheating
• Make a copy of the suspect
• It is harder to catch cheaters in
  homeworks/projects/take home tests

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Cure for cheating

• Resolving is painful
• Time consuming
• Have sound proofs
• Follow universitys regulations
• Dont decide to decrease the grade

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Other discipline problems

• Talking
• News paper
• Head phones

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Prevention

• Ask politely to stop
• More involvement in activities
• Private discussion
• Late arrivals
• Hostility
• Absence
• Procrastination
• Missing tests
• Argue about grades after each test
• Buying of grades (Money, gifts, sex)

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Teaching ethics

• Teaching students to become ethical engineers
• General discussion on ethics
• Ethics must be instilled
• From the beginning
• Code of ethics
• Class debate on ethics

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Flormans hypothesis

• Dont break the law
• Be careful, hardworking, dedicated and innovative
• Work within the system

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THANKS