In a project-organized problem-based learning curriculum, students are encouraged to learn through a process where they write questions and find their own answers. Their supervisor has an important function in facilitating this process. When it comes to project assessment, this pattern is often changed to one where the supervisor asks the…

Odense University College of Engineering has begun a revision of all curricula founded on the principle that student learning is the main objective of teaching. At the same time there is a large demand for increasing efficiency and increasing the possibility of professional development of staff. Development of staff should be possible by…

This paper describes the procedures used to assess the extent that a team of students, and the individual students in it, has mastered the competencies set for a student team-based open-ended project. The paper addresses questions such as: why examine team-based project work? What and when to examine? What are the essential regulations and…

The paper commences by briefly introducing the systems engineering programme, then focuses on the "systems" module, which requires the first-year students to undertake a number of "open-ended" projects. During the problem-based learning (PBL) based projects the students are expected to combine creativity and the knowledge they acquire during the…

A well-designed assessment strategy can motivate students, and help teachers and institutions to support deep learning. In contrast, inappropriate forms of assessment may promote surface learning, and will therefore fail to support the true goals of education. Recent theories of learning stress the value of dialogue, negotiation and feedback.…

This article describes the possibilities offered by the online assessment system Etude to achieve the benefits of formative assessment. In order to find out the way this works in practice, we carried out an experiment with the use of Etude for formative assessment in the course on collaborative report writing. Results show that online formative…

At the end of a lecturing period examinations are used to take a snapshot of the level of knowledge of a student. It is essential that this snapshot be taken at the right moment. Particularly when a student fails, it is important to make sure that it is because his level of knowledge is not adequate, not because, for example, he had a severe…

The Faculty of Architecture of Delft University of Technology considers valid and reliable assessment of designing an important issue. A project called Bottom-up was started to address this issue, using the experiences and practice of design teachers as a starting point. The goals of this project were to enlarge inter-subjective reliability and to…

Assessment determines what students regard as important: if a teacher wants to change students' learning, he/she should change the methods of assessment. This article describes the use of portfolio assessment on five courses dealing with chemical reactor and process design during the years 1999-2001. Although the use of portfolio was a new…

Assessment has become a powerful tool to change student learning. In a project of the Council of Engineering Courses of the University of Minho, Portugal, students of textile engineering, apparel engineering and industrial electronics increased their participation in every aspect of their assessment process. The traditional exam was changed to…

The issue of addressing innovation and change in engineering students' assessment is the target of this paper. The contents are an overview of the issues related to the evolution of the engineering learning requirements, a review of the traditional student evaluation methods in practice, a description of a current experiment in engineering student…

The Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) is immersed in an educational system mainly based on master classes, and although graduates benefit from a good preparation, there is an appreciable rate of failure among the students. The UPV is aware of the restructuring requirements of the current system and consequently, and in accordance with the…

Multiple-choice testing (MCT) has several advantages which are becoming more relevant in the current financial climate. In particular, they can be machine marked. As an objective testing method it is particularly relevant to engineering and other factual courses, but MCTs are not widely used in engineering because students can benefit from…

The sweet spot for the use of technology in education may clearly be that software personalizes the learning experience, connects all the components and emancipates publication for targeted and effective interaction. In the future, no one owns content as an end product. It is molecular at its origin. MIT will give away their content for free,…

Multimedia applications can provide enormous enrichment to the methodology of teaching, learning and learning by doing. When developing applications for the teaching of engineering design using these means of communication it is important to consider the special features of this field. This contribution gives a report on the experience gained by…