Living in a digital age, it 麻豆精品 S檚 hard to imagine not being able to do something on your laptop, tablet or phone. So what happens when the discipline you teach still relies on pen and paper for assessing students? In true UCF fashion, you find a better way.
麻豆精品 S淚 saw so many other disciplines turning to technology for assessments and thought 麻豆精品 S榟ow can this be done for engineering, 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S� asked Ronald DeMara, a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. 麻豆精品 S淓ngineering isn 麻豆精品 S檛 something that maps well to online assessment. We 麻豆精品 S檙e asking our students to show us how they arrived at an answer, and that 麻豆精品 S檚 not something you can readily see through multiple choice alone. 麻豆精品 S�
DeMara 麻豆精品 S檚 curiosity led him to develop an integrated testing and tutoring center that 麻豆精品 S檚 setting the standard for computer engineering and computer science at UCF and soon could be expanded to other STEM fields across the university.
It 麻豆精品 S檚 also what led DeMara to be named the Fall 2017 winner of the Marchioli Collective Impact Innovation Award for advancing teaching and learning in UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Collective Impact Strategic Plan.
In DeMara 麻豆精品 S檚 Evaluation and Proficiency Center (EPC), students take their tests through familiar online web portals but upload scratch paper to show how they 麻豆精品 S檝e solved each design problem. Then, they work individually with faculty or graduate teaching assistants to understand what they got wrong and how to improve it. Faculty also can identify patterns from the digitized responses they would have otherwise missed using hand-graded assignments.
麻豆精品 S淐ountless hours used to go into creating assessments, and then grading each assessment by hand, 麻豆精品 S� DeMara said. 麻豆精品 S淚t was extremely labor intensive and took time away from the other areas of our job that really affect change and advance learning. Creating the EPC has realigned efforts toward high-gain learning. 麻豆精品 S�
The hours that were previously dedicated to creating and hand-grading assessments are now allocated to tutoring 麻豆精品 S� a win, win for both students and faculty, he adds.
Originally a pilot program in DeMara 麻豆精品 S檚 undergraduate electrical engineering class, the EPC is now a 120-seat, college-wide teaching facility that has benefited thousands of students and assists more than 20 faculty members. A new Quality Enhancement Plan grant will help train more faculty in other STEM fields.
Early studies show the EPC 麻豆精品 S檚 success. Summative scores are up 6.3 percent when students are engaged in the EPC, and at least one electrical engineering course reduced withdrawals by 25 percent.
Nearly 80 percent of students said the EPC provided a more personalized learning experience, and 90 percent of students agreed the EPC 麻豆精品 S檚 methods helped them learn better than conventional homework alone.
麻豆精品 S淭he EPC bolsters UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 position to remain at the forefront of instructional technology for high-quality, individualized student experiences in high-enrollment courses, 麻豆精品 S� said Chuck Reilly, associate dean in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. 麻豆精品 S淩on is leveraging his background in computer engineering for the good of our students and faculty by maximizing the use of technology to enhance learning. 麻豆精品 S�
DeMara will be holding a seminar series this spring on scaling online assessment and tutoring across other disciplines, with days and times to be announced.
Nominations for the Spring 2018 Marchioli Collective Impact Innovation Award are due March 9. This award goes to one faculty or staff member each fall and spring semester through 2019 for their innovative initiatives, programs or projects that demonstrate measurable outcomes related to at least one priority metric from the聽Collective Impact Strategic Plan and can be scaled across the university.