Our departments vary

1
Our departments vary

• variation in students' ability.
• variation in students' motivation.
• variation in students' experience
• e.g. 'A' level vs GNVQ(A).
• variation in nature of courses
• theoretical vs practical approaches.
• electronic vs computer engineering.

2
Assessment issues affect us all

• Standards
• Promoting learning
• Assessment practice
• Computer aided assessment

3
Standards

• Engineering benchmark has outcomes at three
  levels.
• Levels are only properly defined by reference to
  the actual assessment.
• Need for consistency.
• Need for moderation.
• IEE interested in output standards.

4
Promoting learning

• Regular assessment can overcome poor motivation /
  attendance.
• Formative assessment complements summative
  assessment.
• Students need quick feedback on their
  performance.

5
But ....

• Larger classes mean more marking.
• Students are conditioned to modular thinking and
  need more small hurdles.
• Providing rapid feedback to large numbers is
  difficult.
• ... and we run out of ideas for questions!

6
Assessment practice

• Need for flexibility in delivery
• especially with in-course assessment.
• all of the students at the same time?
• Need to avoid plagiarism
• does coursework have a future?
• Need for repeating assessments until outcomes are
  met.

7
Computer aided assessment

• What technology is needed?
• hardware, OS, software.
• Do large class sizes demand large numbers of
  terminals?
• Portability of question banks.
• or are we restricted to one CAA package?
• Interoperability of systems.

8
What does e3an offer?

• Question banks
• different themes, question types, levels
• questions, solutions, feedback
• Peer moderated
• Portable formats
• can feed a range of CAA packages
• can be paper based
• may just be used for ideas
• Beyond e3an.......