Abstract:

Higher education institutions are moving from content-based curricula to competency-based curricula and, consequently, to competency-based teaching. Thus, existing assessment instruments have slowly migrated to assessing competencies in our students. With this evolution, formal methods and validated tests are being created to evaluate graduation competencies in engineering programs.
These standardized tests should include disciplinary problem solving, communication skills, divergent thinking, visual thinking, and qualitative reasoning, among others. However, conducting an effective assessment of graduation competencies in engineering students is a difficult and complex process for all higher education professionals, so the design of assessment instruments that are validated becomes an essential part, playing a crucial role in the evaluation of soft and disciplinary competencies of engineering programs and the measurement of graduation achievements in our students.
The present study aims to evaluate the validity of using an internal digital practice test as a support tool in the preparation of engineering students in communicative competencies, prior to the evaluation of the national standardized exit exam that students take as one of their graduation requirements. The practice test is intended to reinforce students' knowledge of communication skills prior to taking the exit exam, so this study evaluates the effect of the practice test on the performance of engineering students on the national exam.
The results indicate that students increased their confidence in solving problems on the Cross-Cutting Language and Communication section of the National Exit Examination after taking the mock exam. Actions such as these strengthen our academic community and contribute to the success of our students as they move from college to the workforce.

Keywords:

Digital assessment, Higher education, Communicative competence in engineering, e-learning test.