Comparison of Direct and Indirect Assessment of a Summer Engineering Economy Course taught with Active Learning Techniques

The abbreviated summer class schedule, which results in longer class times, can present several barriers to learning. One significant factor is the lack of time needed for knowledge construction. As students stretch and reform their schemas to synthesize new material, they often generate inappropriate perceptions of critical class material. An effective strategy for addressing this is to provide a variety of active learning techniques that engage students and focus on their different learning styles. In this paper, data from two class sections of engineering economy taught in a compressed summer term were examined to see how well the student’s self-assessment of the course objectives compared to direct assessment measures. Teaching techniques used in these classes include incorporating learning objectives directly into the teaching of course material, both student and instructor-generated crossword puzzles, student-generated Pictionary, clickers, starting each class with a song about money, using real money and magnets to illustrate applications of different interest factors, Muddiest Point paper, think-pair-share, individual and group problem solving, brainstorming, case studies, debates, and a number of other useful techniques. The student’s self-assessment of learning objectives was measured through a survey and the direct assessment was done through the use of mid-term and final exam questions. To assess the correlation between self-assessment and direct assessment, one-tailed tests at a level of significance of 0.05 with 50 degrees of freedom were performed. A correlation was found to be significant at the 0.01 level and so overall, it appears that the students had an accurate perception of their own course performance. The paper will discuss the student self-assessment of the course objectives, the direct assessment of course objectives, and some of the teaching and learning techniques used to enhance the course.