Abstract:

The case studies takes place in an Engineering program. One has three hours of theoretical classes and two hours of practical classes each week. The discipline responds to needs to develop a scientifically based logical reasoning, to foster the capacity of logical thinking, to enable the competences of communication in scientific and technical approaches. The contents are fundamental concepts of linear algebra and matrices, applying algebraic calculus, formulate and solve explicit algebraic problems and acquire basic notions of analytical geometry.

The assessment method used in previous years were composed by two quizzes during the semester followed by exams to improve final grades or to have the chance to replace the any of the failing grades. The percentage of success in the previous years was between 50% and 60%. Several reasons were presented as causes for these low rates of success. The primary obstacle were the weeks when the students had other quizzes in the other making the follow-up of Algebra studies a secondary task. Algebra is a learning subject that is based on a constructivist approach and an ineffective learning of previous subjects has the consequence of a permanent divorce of the following subjects.

For this reason, it was decided to innovate the assessment while trying to involve students along the semester. The upgrade consisted in including an evaluation of each student along the semester that was 15% of the final grade. Each student was called at least two times to solve on the blackboard the problems assigned on a random basis for each class. That allowed to detect understanding problems of students, to motivate students to be prepared for each class and to value the work done along the semester besides the quizzes. A statistical analysis of the marks does not show a significant improvement in terms of the distribution of final grades, but clearly points out gender as a significant factor behind the variation in grades, with female students exhibiting a modest increase in final grades in 2020/21 when compared to the previous year.

The second case study involved a discipline at the end of the Engineering program and was based on personalized assessment of student work made every week. In this formative assessment (hybrid) involved weekly joint discussion of results of home works taking into account the evaluation rubrics of each one. Records were made of deficiencies and of study/research improvements. These were complemented by public general solution and general recommendations based on the discussions and on identification of common mistakes. in this case study the grade improvements were about 15%.

Keywords:

Assessment, formative, hybrid, personalized evaluation, active learning.