Formative and Summative Assessment in Agricultural Engineering and Technology Courses

Abstract

Engineering education is undergoing a transformation with a shift in focus to studentoutcomes. While many efforts to assess student outcomes have been at the curriculum level,assessment must also be done at the course level since this is where much learning and instructiontakes place. Multiple summative and formative assessments were employed in a two-year study ofstudent perceptions of their learning and the instructional methods in two related agriculturalengineering and agricultural technology courses at Iowa State University. The goal of these effortswas to better understand how students learn so that instructional methods can be changed to betterpromote learning. Formative assessment tools included a weekly e-mail feedback journal and amidterm electronic survey using WebCT. Summative assessment tools included focus groups andend-of-term student evaluations of instruction (SEI). Based on the e-mail journals and the midtermsurvey, several adjustments were made to the courses during the course terms; such as bringingmore real-world examples into the classroom, providing more example problems in the class, andproviding review based on students electronic questions. The focus groups and SEI were used tobetter understand the effectiveness of these formative assessment tools and the relationshipbetween student learning and instruction.