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WIP: Exploring Strategies that Allow Multiple Attempts on Formative Assessments in an Introduction Programming Course

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

June 26, 2024

Conference Session

NEE Technical Session 4 - Assessments: Grading and deadlines

Tagged Division

New Engineering Educators Division (NEE)

Page Count

8

DOI

10.18260/1-2--48304

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/48304

Download Count

106

Paper Authors

biography

Bob Schaffer Mission College

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Dr. Bob Schaffer is a professor and department chair of the Engineering Department and the Mechatronic Technology Department at Mission College (Santa Clara, CA). He is also a lecturer at Santa Clara University and founder/Board Chair at Elevate Tutoring, a non-profit that works to empower low-income and first-generation students.

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Abstract

For some faculty, it is an ongoing challenge to design assignments and course policies that motivate students to focus on the learning that can come from overcoming challenges. For many students, when the stakes are too high or their time is too strained, productive activities are bypassed for strategies that more quickly get to an answer without necessarily exercising critical thinking skills. A variety of approaches have been taken to encourage students to productively struggle on formative assessments and then reflect on their results to further enhance learning [1], [2], [3]. These strategies often come with a tradeoff. The purpose of this work is to share additional strategies where students have been given multiple opportunities to complete formative assignments with the hope of finding a balance where students feel motivated to put enough effort into the ‘productive struggle’ and problem solving to learn the material. Specifically, this paper presents variations on an approach where students were given multiple opportunities to complete their lab assignments and weekly homework assignments. While the summative assessments in the class, like quizzes, midterms, and final exams were preserved as single-attempt assessments, the initial exposure to material included activities that allowed students to take multiple attempts at learning the material. This work-in-progress paper shares the details of the structure of the assignments and initial results from applying these approaches in an Introduction to Programming for Engineers class at a two-year college.

Schaffer, B. (2024, June), WIP: Exploring Strategies that Allow Multiple Attempts on Formative Assessments in an Introduction Programming Course Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--48304

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