ELECTRONIC STUDENT HOMEWORK MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT AND PROGRAM ASSESSMENT

摘要

Student enrollment for the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln has been increasing for the past twenty years. The Department has two Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) engineering programs; Agricultural Engineering (AGEN) and Biological Systems Engineering (BSEN). Freshman enrollments have been 80 plus students for the past three years. Required class enrollments have been recently steady at 40 to 60 students per class. Two core example courses: "Engineering Properties of Biological Materials" and "Instrumentation and Controls" have investigated the use of electronic teaching delivery and grading methods, electronic submission and grading of student homework, laboratory reports, and quizzes. The rationale was to become more efficient at grading consistency improving time management and reducing the amounts of hardcopy materials. Student submissions are graded electronically with touch screen technologies. Graded materials are recorded, archived to an ABET Continuous Improvement and Program Assessment (CIPA) database, and returned to the students electronically by an email system. Student evidence is important for timely updates to course and curriculum outcomes matrices, one of the assessment methods recently published in the department's CIPA manual. Timely feedback to students on their course performance is very important. Areas addressed include the traditional engineering problem solving approach, along with computer solutions and laboratory reports. User friendly assessment, student work recovery, delivery, and electronic grading systems were evaluated for efficacy and performance. Advantages and disadvantages of these systems are discussed.