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ABET ASSESSMENT USING CALIBRATED PEER REVIEW Introduction

Most engineering programs have some type of capstone design experience. At Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Rose) the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department also has a similar set of courses. Therefore, the ECE Department decided to use senior design to assess EC3(g) (ABET Engineering Criterion 3-g): “ability to communicate effectively”. However, we needed/wanted a tool to help us develop our assessment process for EC3(g).

The ECE Department was introduced to the Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) [1]. CPR is an online-tool with four structured workspaces that perform in tandem to create a series of activities that reflect modern pedagogical strategies for using writing in the learning process

• Task: Students are presented with a challenging writing task, with guiding questions to act as scaffolding for the demanding cognitive activities. • Calibration: Students read through three “benchmark” samples and assign each a score based on a series of evaluative questions (a rubric). Students are then given a “Reviewer Competency Index – RCI” from 1 to 6, based on their demonstrated competency in these exercises. This segment mitigates the common objection to peer review in the undergraduate classroom: that the experience reduces itself to the-blind- leading-the-blind. • Peer Review: After becoming a “trained-reader” – and being assigned a RCI – students read and provide written feedback on three anonymous peer essays using the same rubric as used in the calibrations. Students also assign each essay a holistic score from 1 to 10. • Self-Assessment: As a final activity, students evaluate their own essay. As with calibration and peer review, students use the same “rubric” (set of performance standards for the task). Having “trained” on benchmark samples, and then applied their expertise in evaluating peer text, students now engage in a reflective, final activity by assessing their own submission. Students are encouraged at this time to make comments to themselves (and also available to the instructor) that capture the evolving insights they have gained in the previous two segments. They are also invited to reflect on whether they have gained a deeper level of understanding for the assignment and its outcomes.

How We Applied CPR

After some experimentation with CPR, it was very obvious that with proper design of exercises, CPR could be used to assess EC3(g). In fact, CPR could be used to make writing a method of learning engineering design. Therefore, the ECE Department has developed a complete course using CPR assignments to help our students develop proposals for their senior design projects. This course, ECE362 Principles of Design, is a junior level required course for all computer and electrical engineering students. ECE362 includes intellectual property, research methods, design specifications, conceptual design, scheduling, project management, business plan, market survey, and budgeting that culminates in a written proposal and oral presentation requesting funds for development of a product. The following CPR exercises’ are used in ECE362:

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Berry, F., & Carlson, P. (2007, June), Abet Assessment Using Calibrated Peer Review Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--1565