2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This is a complete paper that explores the purposes of take home exams from the perspective of both undergraduate engineering students and instructors. Traditional methods of testing such as in class exams are widely used for grading and assessment. Occasionally take home exams are given instead however, and this paper explores the perception of students and professors of such new assessment formats. Assessments like as take-home tests and open note tests have been understudied in engineering education. This paper aims to address this gap through interviewing undergraduate engineering students and instructors to better understand and characterize perceived reasons to use newer testing methods or adhere to traditional structures for exams.
This paper seeks to identify motivations and social drives to switch and barriers to doing so via exploring the perceptions of students and instructors on alternative testing methods across engineering fields. To do so, we used qualitative semi-structured interviews with students and instructors to identify important benefits or disadvantages as seen by the key stakeholders. Additionally, this builds upon prior research identifying pros and cons of this new approach to testing.
In this paper we present the primary points, both positive and negative, brought up in the interviews as well as an analysis of differences between experienced instructors and students (those that have been in university longer than 2 years) vs new students/professors. This paper will also explain the methods used for obtaining and analyzing data. Preliminary research revealed that the primary reasons not to switch are an increased possibility of dishonest practices (exasperated by online learning due to COVID), and a possibility of students studying less for take home exams than traditional exams. Commonly cited reasons to switch included increased flexibility, decreased stress for students, and an environment more accurate to post educational work.