Assessing Sophomore Cornerstone Courses in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Branimir Pejcinovic; Melinda Holtzman; Andrew Greenberg

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: Assessment and Curriculum Development
Tagged Division: Electrical and Computer Engineering Division (ECE)
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/46609

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Branimir Pejcinovic Portland State University orcid.org/0000-0001-8574-5455

visit author page

Branimir Pejcinovic received his Ph.D. degree from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is a Professor and former Associate Chair for Undergraduate Education at Portland State University, Electrical and Computer Engineering department. He has led department-wide changes in curriculum with emphasis on project- and lab-based instruction and learning. He was awarded the best paper award by the ECE division of ASEE in 2017 for his work on freshman engineering course development. His research interests are in the areas of engineering education, microwave absorber design, ferroelectrics, photovoltaics, THz sensors, signal integrity, and semiconductor device characterization, design, and simulation. He is a member of IEEE and ASEE.

visit author page

biography

Melinda Holtzman Portland State University

visit author page

Melinda Holtzman received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno. She is a Teaching Assistant Professor and undergraduate advisor in the ECE department at PSU.

visit author page

biography

Andrew Greenberg Portland State University

visit author page

Andrew Greenberg received his MS in Electrical Engineering from Portland State University. After spending 20 years in industry running interdisciplinary teams working on embedded systems for medical devices, he is now a Senior Instructor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at PSU.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

Over the last five years, we have initiated, implemented, and refined our approach to teaching sophomore-level cornerstone courses. The original impetus for the development of these courses was the realization that students did not have sufficient preparation for demanding capstone projects and that waiting for the senior year to fix the deficiencies was not effective. While there are introductory level project-based courses in the first year, students do not have enough technical background to make the projects technically challenging. While they may get some teamwork experience from such courses, they usually only get very basic, if any, training in project management. This is why we decided to introduce our cornerstone courses in the sophomore year. We developed a two-quarter-long course sequence: one focused on design processes and another on project implementation. We had two overarching goals: 1. Teach students design and project development well before senior Capstone projects. 2. Integrate various strands of electrical and computer engineering through experiential learning. Given their project-based nature, these courses are a natural fit for the assessment of many of the student outcomes listed by ABET. We have developed a series of assessment tools, primarily in the form of rubrics. These rubrics are generalizable and can be applied in other courses, especially project-based ones. We paid special attention to some of the so-called “professional skills”: teamwork, project management, ethics, life-long learning, and communication. In the full paper, we will describe each of the assessment tools, their deployment, examples of analysis, and how this analysis was eventually used in ABET assessment. These tools have changed over the years, and Covid makes historical comparisons difficult. However, with the return of in-class instruction, we are now collecting data and can identify potential problems in student learning. We have also developed detailed course information describing assessment and other organizational issues arising in this and similar courses. We believe this documentation will be useful to any potential future adopters. We will discuss this documentation in the full paper as well.

Citation
Format

Pejcinovic, B., & Holtzman, M., & Greenberg, A. (2024, June), Assessing Sophomore Cornerstone Courses in Electrical and Computer Engineering Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/46609

TY - CPAPER
AB - Over the last five years, we have initiated, implemented, and refined our approach to teaching sophomore-level cornerstone courses. The original impetus for the development of these courses was the realization that students did not have sufficient preparation for demanding capstone projects and that waiting for the senior year to fix the deficiencies was not effective. While there are introductory level project-based courses in the first year, students do not have enough technical background to make the projects technically challenging. While they may get some teamwork experience from such courses, they usually only get very basic, if any, training in project management. This is why we decided to introduce our cornerstone courses in the sophomore year. We developed a two-quarter-long course sequence: one focused on design processes and another on project implementation. We had two overarching goals:
1. Teach students design and project development well before senior Capstone projects.
2. Integrate various strands of electrical and computer engineering through experiential learning.
Given their project-based nature, these courses are a natural fit for the assessment of many of the student outcomes listed by ABET. We have developed a series of assessment tools, primarily in the form of rubrics. These rubrics are generalizable and can be applied in other courses, especially project-based ones. We paid special attention to some of the so-called “professional skills”: teamwork, project management, ethics, life-long learning, and communication.
In the full paper, we will describe each of the assessment tools, their deployment, examples of analysis, and how this analysis was eventually used in ABET assessment. These tools have changed over the years, and Covid makes historical comparisons difficult. However, with the return of in-class instruction, we are now collecting data and can identify potential problems in student learning. We have also developed detailed course information describing assessment and other organizational issues arising in this and similar courses. We believe this documentation will be useful to any potential future adopters. We will discuss this documentation in the full paper as well.

AU - Branimir Pejcinovic
AU - Melinda Holtzman
AU - Andrew Greenberg
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Assessing Sophomore Cornerstone Courses in Electrical and Computer Engineering
UR - https://peer.asee.org/46609
ER -