2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

For this work-in-progress (WIP) paper, faculty from ___ University’s Mechanical Engineering (ME) and Civil Engineering (CIVE) Programs developed a Learning Management System (LMS) module for Fundamentals of Engineering Diagnostic Test (FEDT) and analyzed the preliminary data obtained from its first run during Fall 2023. The FEDT module is intended to be used for multiple purposes that are explained briefly below.

Both ME and CIVE programs have the mission of graduating engineers that will contribute to their professions, seek leadership positions, and most importantly pursue their education with licensure programs. The Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam is the first step that an Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accredited engineering program awardee or candidate takes towards becoming a professional licensed engineer (P.E.). Thus, both ME and CIVE programs require their seniors to take the FE test in partial fulfillment for a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Just like many other engineering programs across the country, ___ University’s ME and CIVE programs are also using the FE exam results as program assessment tools.

About half of the Mechanical Engineering FE and Civil Engineering FE exam questions are from courses offered to first-year students and second-year students (on average 43 % for ME, and 54% for CIVE). These are also the topics that ____ University’s ME and CIVE program seniors struggled with, historically. The developed FEDT module specifically targets these topics. The author of this paper developed about 200 questions (and their step-by-step solutions) in Mathematics (Algebra, Calculus, Differential Equations, Statistics, and Probability), Numerical Methods, Statics, Dynamics, and Mechanics of Materials. 36 questions were picked from the pool to be provided as a proctored FEDT test. Starting from Fall 2023 semester, both ME and CIVE programs requested their third-year students (Program admitted Juniors) to take the proctored FEDT test. The results of these proctored tests are used as an early-warning system to the program students and instructors. Instructors of the above-mentioned classes can use the results to make improvements of topics that students struggled with the most in the long term. Instructors of the courses that have above-mentioned classes as pre-requisites can intervene in short-term to make-up for the vital contents. Moreover, students will identify the areas that they need to practice more. The students who already took the proctored FEDT test can use the remaining questions to study for the FE test in their own time. Lastly, the historic trends of FEDT results will be used as an assessment tool for both programs.