An Online Team-Based Practical Exam in Lieu of Final Reports for a Design Course
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Biomedical Engineering Education (Ó 2020) https://doi.org/10.1007/s43683-020-00030-z
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An Online Team-Based Practical Exam in Lieu of Final Reports for a Design Course WILLIAM H. GUILFORD Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA (Received 30 June 2020; accepted 9 September 2020)
CHALLENGE
NOVEL INITIATIVE
Anecdote suggests that the abrupt transition of university courses to wholly online instruction was especially difficult for engineering design courses. Design courses have evolved toward team-based activities, hands-on building and testing, and the availability of fabrication equipment and other facilities. As the pandemic set in, instructors sought meaningful online opportunities to interact with students in their BME design courses, for students to work together as teams, and means for providing fair and meaningful assessments. We here address summative assessment in a teambased design course and suggest that an online practical exam can in many cases be a preferable alternative to final design papers or comprehensive final exams, regardless of whether the class is delivered online or inperson. Indeed, there is evidence that among the several options for assessment—selected response, extended written response, performance assessments, and direct communication9—practical exams (a form of performance assessment) are better measures of student learning than are written reports3—a common staple of engineering design assessment. The most important and challenging factor in assessment is to match the assessment method to the intended goal.9 Performance assessment seems to be a clear choice for a class whose goal is to instill the hands-on skills needed to engage in the engineering design process for clinical devices. We are aware of no reports on the use of practical exams during remote or online learning, and few reports of practical exams in biomedical engineering courses.6
This initiative was realized in a second-year design course in BME that focused on the development of skills needed for later steps in the engineering design process—namely detailed design, prototyping, testing, and some elements of communication. This course has been described elsewhere in greater detail.4,5 Briefly, Individual training was provided in a variety of fabrication techniques and other skills that we judge to be valuable to the engineering design process as it pertains to medical devices. These included:
Address correspondence to William H. Guilford, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA. Electronic mail: [email protected]
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Embedded controllers and basic electronics (‘‘Arduino Uno Ultimate Starter Kit + LCD Module’’, Vilros.com) CAD, mechanical drawings, and FE simulation (Autodesk Fusion 360) 3D printing Soldering and de-soldering of circuits Forming and shaping soft materials (band saws, jig saws, drill presses, sanders) Reference management software (Zotero) Efficient use o
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