© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 A Direct Assessment Technique that Works

The development and use of direct assessment techniques using embedded indicators has become more prevalent at this institution over the last two years in response to requirements to provide more meaningful assessment data without incurring additional faculty resources. A specific technique linking student grades to the assessment of program outcomes has been used successfully in two civil engineering courses with good success. This paper presents a revised procedure that serves to address previously expressed concerns related to mathematical processes within the assessment technique. The assessment technique is constructed within a spreadsheet and is easy to modify for use in any course. Inherent to this assessment technique is a mapping of specific student activities, whether as part of a project or other graded assignment, to specific program outcomes. The mapping involves the assignment of a number between one (weak mapping) and five (strong mapping) by experienced faculty members who have taught the course at least once and are knowledgeable about both the course and its relation to the program outcomes. Included within the spreadsheet is a standard grading breakdown which lists the specific student activities an