University of Twente Student Theses
Cumulative assessment in University of Twente's Mechanical Engineering curriculum : a pilot study
Stinenbosch, Marlou (2017) Cumulative assessment in University of Twente's Mechanical Engineering curriculum : a pilot study.
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| Abstract: | Currently, students studying the bachelor program Mechanical Engineering (ME) at the University of Twente have a tendency to forget basic terms and theories necessary for consequent courses, according to the teachers. Teachers need to spend time on previously taught materials during their courses. The use of cumulative assessment (CA) can be a powerful promoter for students to increase knowledge retention. This study developed CAs to measure students’ knowledge retention of previously covered knowledge and applied this in a pilot study. The pilot study tested how a formative CA tool can be developed to gain insight in the current long-term knowledge retention of students. First, the basic learning goals were identified by teachers and multiple-choice (MC) questions were developed by them that were included in the CAs. Feedback on test results and elaborations was given to the students. All bachelor students of ME were asked to participate. Students were asked to participate twice during academic year 2016-2017, once at the end of quartile 3 (n = 269) and once at the end of quartile 4 (n = 95). Data was collected by an open question to teachers to identify basic learning goals, MC questions and elaborations. Two CAs for students were used that consisted of MC questions measuring the basic knowledge they were expected to have. Reliability analysis on the developed CAs were done as well as analysis on the items in the CA used. This study identified insufficient support throughout the faculty of ME for implementing CA. Support of all staff members is necessary when items need to be developed to be used in CAs. Furthermore, it appeared that teachers had no or less experience with developing MC questions for the CA. Analysis on the developed items in the CA used in this study showed an unreliable scale for all the six developed CAs. Item analysis revealed few questions that were identified as sufficient, most items were identified as being too easy, too difficult or that another alternative answer seemed to suit better. Furthermore, formative CA was done to provide the participating students with feedback on their test results and elaborations. The results indicated that students scored on average insufficient on the tests, but they wanted to read the elaborations and check how they answered the previous CA. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 81 education, teaching |
| Programme: | Educational Science and Technology MSc (60023) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/73113 |
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