Implementing Competency Based Assessment (CBA) in a First Year Engineering Program

Abstract

The University of Saskatchewan’s College of Engineering implemented a new First Year Engineering program in 2021/22. Competency-based assessment (CBA) was implemented across most of the curriculum, in a variety of types of courses. An extensive survey of this First Year cohort was conducted in the summer of 2022, and several questions focused on student perceptions of experiences with various aspects of the CBA implementation. This paper details findings from student perceptions of the USask CBA system, the reasons for those perceptions, how students used and navigated CBA, and suggestions for improvement. Descriptive statistics were compiled for all closed-form questions as well as for the coded text response questions. Overall, CBA worked quite well in this first major roll-out of the program. The forgiving nature of the assessment scheme was the most noted positive feature. Logistics play a key role in realizing CBA’s benefits, and improvements in the implementation will be needed in order for students and the program to maximize the potential of CBA.