2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

A common dilemma when administering significant graded events is whether to allow students to use a self-generated equation sheet, especially for closed-book examinations. While much research has evaluated the efficacy of these equation sheets on student performance, there remains a gap in understanding the effects of the quality of the equation sheets on exam performance. This study analyzes the relationship between and quantitative evaluation of student generated equations sheets and exam performance on a particular graded event in a course in a civil engineering program of study.

Students at the United States Military Academy take CE450, Construction Management, typically during their junior or senior year (of note, less than 1% of the students in the course are enrolled as sophomores). The distribution of academic majors among the students in the course is a mix between civil engineering, other STEM, and a variety of non-engineering majors. This mixture of academic major representation in the course is a result of an institutional graduation requirement that all non-engineering major students take a 3-course engineering sequence of classes. CE450, Construction Management, is one of the courses in the infrastructure engineering sequence of classes for the other STEM and non-engineering major students, and it is a required course for the civil engineering majors.

In the course final examination, students are allowed to bring a double-sided 8.5” x 11”, self-generated and hand-written note sheet as an aid. The requirement for the notes to be hand-written is intended to prevent cutting and pasting images or text from an outside source and to compel the students to solidify their understanding of the associated lesson objectives through transcription of key material. Equation sheets are collected at the end of the examination and evaluated to determine the associated density of the material recorded on the page. This word density is then used as a quantifiable metric to relate to exam performance.

Data was collected over the course of two sequential semesters in an academic year with a study population of 210 students. This study will be of interest to faculty and administrators that have an interest in or debate concerning the use of student-generated equation sheets in their respective courses.