2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

An optional homework policy was implemented in seven mechanical engineering courses with a total of 16 sections spanning two years and imposed upon 246 students at Milwaukee School of Engineering, a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI). The policy encouraged students to complete homework assignments not as a direct component of their grade, but rather by affording students’ the ability to increase their final course grade if they simply completed all of the assignments and they were 0.5% close to the next-highest final grade. The impetus of this policy was to instill the importance of completing homework as a means to content mastery and thus improve their final course grade through their own, learner-centered motivation. To satisfy the policy, students needed to submit their good-faith work for every assignment. If students submitted their homework assignments, they were not graded, and feedback was only provided upon request. Students could judge if they were correct because the final answers were provided when the homework was assigned, and complete instructor handwritten solutions were provided after the optional due date. Over the time period this optional homework policy was implemented, 51.9% of the total number of possible assignments (2,279) were completed. As a direct result of the policy, 5.7% of students had their final course grade increased, 2.0% were not increased, and 4.5% were increased for extraneous reasons. This indicates that the final course grade for the majority of the student population (92.3%) was not affected by this optional homework policy. However, those who satisfied the optional homework policy earned an average final grade of BC whereas those students who did not submit their homework earned an average final grade of C (notwithstanding students who dropped or failed the class). This paper discusses the background of the optional homework policy, how it was implemented, results and ramifications, as well as recommendations for increasing learner-centered motivation through formative homework assessments.