DOUBLE APPROACH TO COMPETENCIES EVALUATION IN ELECTRICITY

Electricity is one of the key subjects in Industrial Engineering in any of its branches (electricity, electronics or mechanics). It is a very practical subject that includes two parts: theoretical part, in which students need to be able to represent and calculate solutions for a circuit; and practical part, in which students have to be able to build a circuit and take the appropriate mesures.

At Escola Universitària Salesiana de Sarrià (EUSS) students have to make a theoretical exam, combined with several small theoretical evaluations. The practical part was accomplished by taking measures after solving theoretically the circuits. Nevertheless, after several years of experience, the teachers of the subject were not sure, nor satisfied, about at which level have students acquired practical competencies: they were always able of making the measures when they where in situ, but what about if they were alone in front of a new circuit?

To solve this situation a new system of evaluation has been implemented this year: students have still the theoretical evaluation, but they can take an alternative path. This alternative path is facing a single circuit that they have to solve theoretically and, also, to build it and take some measures. They have to do it in a very limited time, but, those students who have solved the circuit perfectly and taken all the measures, do not need to take the theoretical exam, since we assume have shown that have acquired all the competencies.

On the other hand, to prepare the subject for this kind of evaluation competencies oriented, some items have been taken into account:
1) to solve the circuit of the practical evaluation, students have to use all the competencies that are suposed to acquire in the subject; and
2) the theoretical evaluation has also been oriented to competencies, since it includes a battery of questions and in every single question students have to use a single competencies, and the questions are prepared in a increasing order of difficulty in order to evaluate the level of acquisition of every single competence.

With this system of evaluation we accomplish several goals:
1) students are more motivated to face the practical part of the subject, since it can give them a shorter path to pass the subject, if they have acquired competencies;
2) only students who have acquired completely the competencies, can use this fast track;
3) students who have to evaluate theoretically, have to show the level of acquisition of competencies; but thanks to the extra motivation for the practical part, the acquisition of the corresponding practical part will be better than in previous approach.