Abstract
One advantage of having clearly articulated learning objectives for courses is that students can focus on these objectives to help them unify course material. Unfortunately, students often ignore the stated course objectives and focus their attention on the specific work required to earn good grades from the instructor. Although there should be alignment between these specific grading opportunities and the course objectives, the connections are frequently lost on the students. The authors have previously presented a technique for shifting the student focus from the external validation of course grades to a self-assessment of accomplishment of course learning objectives. The current paper documents the effectiveness of the method based on data collected in twelve classes over three academic years by two professors and discusses enhancements that have been implemented. The approach aims to tie the course grade directly to the student’s self-assessment. At the beginning of the semester, students are given a detailed list of course learning objectives and a grading rubric that relates letter grades to demonstrated levels of accomplishment of these objectives rather than to percentage of points earned. During the course of the semester assignments are collected and graded as usual to provide formative feedback to the students. Twice each semester students are required to give the instructor a portfolio of work demonstrating accomplishment of the learning objectives and a summary evaluation specifying the letter grade earned and, most importantly, how the attached portfolio supports their self- assessment. This paper will examine the correlation of student self-assessment with traditional grading and evaluate its effectiveness in altering student focus from obtaining good grades to achieving course objectives. The use of these self-assessment reports and portfolios for course and program assessment as part of an ABET review will also be discussed. Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education