2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Best Practices for Using Standards-based Grading in Engineering Courses

Presented at Tips of the Trade: Best Practices, Expanded Advice, and Strategies for Implementable Course Improvement

Assessment of student achievement using a grading system is a major task required of engineering educators. Most higher education institutions use a traditional, summative score-based grading system that relies on educators to assign an end of semester letter grade representative of student achievement in the course. The default is to assign student grades by tabulating scores from multiple assignments, summing assignment scores, and determining a final course grade based on a predetermined scale. Such an approach inherently fails to meet the conditions of sound assessment of student learning because the resulting final course grades only display how well students performed on completing separate assignments rather than how well they learned specific course objectives. It cannot then be assumed that all students who receive the same final grade have mastered the same content. An alternative approach is to directly measure the quality of students’ proficiency toward well defined course outcomes through a learning outcomes based approach, heretofore referred to as standards based grading (SBG).

This paper assesses the use of SBG by six instructors at different institutions to identify best practices for integration. Five components were identified as keys to successful implementation:
1. Establish learning outcomes for a course prior to creating course activities/assignments, i.e., backwards course design
2. Develop a clear set of broad learning outcomes that can be used to develop specific suboutcomes or objectives to be measured
3. Avoid courses where the learning outcomes cannot be summed into a manageable number
4. Utilize a simple 3 to 5 point scale with rubrics that clearly explain to students how to be successful on a given assignment
5. Provide detailed feedback on assignments to continually make students aware of their achievement level toward each course learning outcome

A number of barriers and obstacles were also identified by the instructors that must be overcome. These included faculty, student, and administrative push back to change, confusion toward a smaller, unfamiliar grading scale, difficult integration with course management software (e.g., Blackboard and Canvas), consistency across instructors in multisection courses, increased initial faculty workload, and fit with certain engineering courses.

Perceived benefits of effective implementation of SBG for students by the six faculty participants included opportunities for students to self-evaluate/assess, fail early to address weaknesses in order to ultimately succeed, recognize intended course outcomes throughout the course, and improve study and learning habits.

Authors

Dr. Adam R Carberry http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0041-7060 Arizona State University [biography]

Dr. Adam Carberry is an associate professor at Arizona State University in the Fulton Schools of Engineering, The Polytechnic School. He earned a B.S. in Materials Science Engineering from Alfred University, and received his M.S. and Ph.D., both from Tufts University, in Chemistry and Engineering Education respectively. His research investigates the development of new classroom innovations, assessment techniques, and identifying new ways to empirically understand how engineering students and educators learn. He currently serves as the Graduate Program Chair for the Engineering Education Systems and Design Ph.D. program. He is also the immediate past chair of the Research in Engineering Education Network (REEN) and an associate editor for the Journal of Engineering Education (JEE). Prior to joining ASU he was a graduate student research assistant at the Tufts’ Center for Engineering Education and Outreach.
Dr. Matthew Siniawski Loyola Marymount University [biography]

Dr. Matthew T. Siniawski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Loyola Marymount University. His research interests in the field of engineering education focus on service learning and design education assessment and grading.
Dr. Sara A. Atwood Elizabethtown College [biography]

Dr. Sara A. Atwood is the Dean of the School of Engineering, Math, and Computer Science and Associate Professor of Engineering at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. She holds a BA and MS in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College, and PhD in Mecha
Prof. Heidi A. Diefes-Dux http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3635-1825 University of Nebraska - Lincoln [biography]

Heidi A. Diefes-Dux is a Professor in Biological Systems Engineering at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Food Science from Cornell University and her Ph.D. in Food Process Engineering from the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University. She was an inaugural faculty member of the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. She is currently a Professor in Biological Systems Engineering at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Her role in the College of Engineering at UNL is to lead the disciplinary-based education research initiative, establishing a cadre of engineering education research faculty in the engineering departments and creating a graduate program. Her research focuses on the development, implementation, and assessment of modeling and design activities with authentic engineering contexts; the design and implementation of learning objective-based grading for transparent and fair assessment; and the integration of reflection to develop self-directed learners.

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