2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

There is often a disconnect between academia and the real world concerning the development of future engineers. Faculty and engineering supervisors alike, hope to prepare engineering graduates by teaching the fundamental mechanics and theorems that underly engineering analysis and how to apply them to create successful designs. Ultimately, in the real world where graduates spend their careers, a mentoring model is typically used in which an engineering supervisor will oversee, advise, and correct a new engineering hire to help him/her learn the profession. However, in academia, high-stakes, high-pressure, individual assessments are often the norm with little to no path to redemption, leading graduating students confused on exactly how engineers are formed.

With the formation of the engineer in mind, the instructor has implemented a mastery based approach in an undergraduate reinforced concrete design course. In the course, students must show aptitude in key course learning objectives, separated into three skill sets: Required Skills, Major Skills, and Minor Skills. To test students in the skills, the instructor adapted previous homework, in class assignments, and exam questions to meet the needs of the listed skill. For some skills, the students can submit more than once, whereas in others, the students might need to submit a new assignment problem. In all cases, students have the chance to be evaluated, receive correction, and then be evaluated again. This cycle builds trust between students and instructors and validates student learning, making it a culturally responsive approach to teaching.

In addition to allowing multiple attempts, the instructor requires students to submit neatly formatted engineering calculations (preferably organized in Excel spreadsheets) to be more representative of real world project calculation and documentation. It is the goal that students not only learn how to present engineering work but also that they might have a collection of spreadsheets to aid them as they begin their engineering design careers.

The following paper documents the instructor’s first and second attempts at using mastery based assessments in a reinforced concrete design course. Like the variability of concrete, the instructor identified some strengths of the new assessment and grading format for the course as well as failures or “cracks”. Qualitative and quantitative student survey data will be presented.