Take Home Assessment–Comments

Take-Home Assessment – Comments

Some of you may wish to know how the class performed on the final Take Home Assessment. Here are some comments

The Process

• I graded all the essay questions myself – almost everyone was careful and received full credit.
• I reviewed the “item analysis” provided by BbLearn.  It looks at the performance on each question to see if there problems because they were poorly written or possibly required material that was not presented in class.
  • As a result of that review I decided to add 7.2 points to each person’s raw score to make allowance for possible lack of clarity, although I found no questions that I felt were wrongly stated.
  • The result of this increase in the exam is reflected in the column –CAEE-201 TakeHomeAdj

Some comments on questions where there were difficulties.

• Learning after Graduation – It’s almost certain that you’re going to need to go on learning throughout your career as an engineer.  Many of you chose answers that indicated your thought there wouldn’t be much later learning.
• Heat Transfer Calculation – this was the same basic question as in Lab #1
• Nested IF Function – This was admittedly a difficult question, but it was directly based on the hydrology lab.  Learning to use this kind of logic will almost certainly be beneficial in your engineering career.
• Gas Concentrations – A key result of the IAQ lab was that you cannot have all things – low ozone and low CO2 merely by ventilating.
• Revit Type – Revit is BIM software, not a sketching or drafting tool.  When I Googled the word Revit the first entry stated that as I did in class.
• EER – EER is a ratio of BTU/Watt-Hour – It’s a measure of efficiency of an air conditioning system.  it is NOT dimensionless as it is used. 
• Member Weight Calculation – It’s surprising that a number had difficulty with this one.  You needed to calculate the volume and multiply by the density, being sure to watch the units of volume to work in either in^3 or ft^3.

Best/Worst of CAEE-201–Analyzing Your Essays

I’ve completed grading the essays on the final assessment and thought you’d like to have some statistics about what you said – and what I learned.  While grading them I kept track of your comments in a variety of categories suggested by what you wrote (see below) to get a sense of what worked and what needs to be improved.

I’ll use these results to try and improve what we do when next we offer CAEE-201 in the spring.

What Worked

Overall you were very positive about CAEE-201.  You liked the variety of speakers, the exposure to what the CAEE majors consist of, and especially the site visits.

The breakdown of the comments overall was

• 87 Students completed the essay – 3 did not
• 50 wrote only positive comments
• 37 wrote both positive and negative comments
• No one wrote only a negative comment
• 259 Positive/Best comments
• 48 Negative/Worst/Needs Improvement comments

 

What Needs Improvement

As you’ll see in looking at the details the biggest area you felt needs improvement is the instructions for the labs (16 comments).  There were 37 “worst” comments addressing some aspect of the labs (please note that there were 25 positive comments as well).  There’s considerable variety in the specifics of what you felt was problematic.

 

Detailed Comment Breakdown

• The groups of comments are organized alphabetically within “Best” or “Worst”
• In some cases I included specific issues as well

Category    Count    Group    Issue    Comments   
Best    39    Admin    Variety of topics        
Best    12    Admin    Variety of Labs     Need outside lab access   
Best    11    Admin    Course Organization    Introduction to field; balance   
Best    4    Admin    Variety of Lectures       
Best    2    Admin    Work Required appropriate        
Best    68    Admin Total           

Best    27    Career    Major Choice - Helps       
Best    4    Career    Career Path Clarification    FE & PE   
Best    31    Career Total           

Best    21    Discussion    Discussion        
Best    21    Discussion Total           

Best    10    Labs    Revit Lab        
Best    4    Labs    HVAC Lab       
Best    3    Labs    Excel Skills        
Best    3    Labs    LCA Lab       
Best    2    Labs    Senior Design presentation        
Best    1    Labs    Graduated Difficulty of Labs       
Best    1    Labs    Lab Instructions Good        
Best    1    Labs    Water Budget - Rec Center       
Best    25    Labs Total           

Best    15    Lecture    Lectures (especially variety)        
Best    11    Lecture    Lecturers Expert and Passionate       
Best    1    Lecture    Graduate Studies Panel        
Best    1    Lecture    JEM lecture delivery       
Best    1    Lecture    JEM Opening Google Earth Lecture       
Best    1    Lecture    Mullin Lecture       
Best    30    Lecture Total           

Best    47    Site Visits    Bridge Visit       
Best    32    Site Visits    Rec Center Visit       
Best    1    Site Visits    Site Visits        
Best    80    Site Visits Total           

Best    4    TAs    Helpful TAs        
Best    4    TAs Total           

Worst    1    Admin    Not Interested in all topics       

Worst    1    Admin Total           
Worst    4    Discussion    Discussions        
Worst    4    Discussion Total           

Worst    16    Labs    Lab Instructions Confusing     Want handout like HVAC; Became clear OR Became more difficult   
Worst    9    Labs    TA Explanations inadequate    Want TA Schedule   
Worst    2    Labs    Lab Feedback inadequate    Lack of rubrics   
Worst    2    Labs    Labs boring       
Worst    2    Labs    Labs too repetitive    Too much Excel.   
Worst    1    Labs    Bridge Lab Instructions Confusing       
Worst    1    Labs    Delayed Feedback        
Worst    1    Labs    Due date too soon    Make on Weekend   
Worst    1    Labs    Labs too structured    Want more freeform   
Worst    1    Labs    Labs too varied    No connections   
Worst    1    Labs    OpenOffice Didn't work       
Worst    37    Labs Total           

Worst    2    Students    Discussions not taken seriously       
Worst    1    Students    Student disrespect in lecture    Exchange Student: Arriving late, leaving early   
Worst    3    Students Total           

Worst    3    Time    Time Required - Labs + Discussion       
Worst    3    Time Total           

No Written Exam During Exam Week

Question

What I want to ask is that will there be an in-class final exam in the exam week? Because I found that there is a 2-hr exam at 3.30pm next Thursday on the weekly schedule on my DrexelOne. And could you please kindly tell me what that exam will include? 

Response

As I said in class there is NO sit-down exam in CAEE-201.  You can ignore that Thursday date.

Memo Format–Senior Design Lab

Question

I was wondering if there is a specific Memo format to follow. I saw many different types and templates online but I did not know which specific Memo format to follow.

Response

We are not fussy.  If you have MS Word you can choose one of the Memo templates.  Here are the usual ingredients. Just be sure to include all the required information.  the identifying information can readily be in bullet format.

To:	[Recipient Name]
From:	[Your Name]
Subject:	[Subject]
Date:	[Click to Select Date]

[Type your memo text here]

 

Question

After reviewing several styles of memo's including analysis style, I was wondering how I should structure the memo? Is it a recap of the presentation addressing the specific questions?  OR

Should i address it to the group as an analysis of their presentation and how well they conveyed the points asked in the senior presentation guide.

Response

Either approach is acceptable so long as you address all the questions raised in the lab.  My own preference would be to address the group, but that is NOT required.

LCA Lab Questions

Question 1

On question 2.C it says to reference table 3.

The unit on table 3 is unclear, however.

"dry Mg^2", what do you mean by that? Mg of Switchgrass? 

And why is Mg squared?

Response

If you’ll look at the bottom of the page you’ll see that the “2” is actually a footnote, not a squared symbol – I agree it’s initially confusing.

Yes it’s referring to dry switchgrass.

Question 2

For herbicide there are two units. Which one do you want me to use?

Response

Both are appropriate since both are required.

 

Question 3

It says, "(grams/dry ton transported)" but it is still category of "(grams of nutrient/dry Mg transported)" 

Response

You’ll have to make a conversion.

 

Question 4

On Labintro file page 9 the instruction is not clear. 

"Table 2 net GHG emissions [gCO2e/L] for extraction, refining, delivery, storage"

Response

This is a slide set by a previous TA included as possibly being helpful.  Refer back to Mr. Long’s info and the main instructions by Dr. Spatari or the Table-2 info in the excel file.

About the Final Lab–Senior Design Presentation

Follow the instructions in the Week-11 Assignment.

Notes:

• The lab is due by Saturday 12/6 at 11:59PM. 
  • This is NOT a full week after you attend the presentation.  It’s the same week.
• You may attend a Senior Design presentation in another department if you wish, but you need to submit by the same due date.
• The schedule for presentations in this calendar is NOT official.  It may change
• The CAEE conference room is located on the 2nd floor of AEL – see this map for help.

12/8/2014 Updated due date to 12/6 (incorrectly showed 12/16).  I had announced the correct date in class and BbL showed that as well.

About the Online Final Assessment

Where Do I Find It?

• Click on the “Quizzes and Exams” menu item in the course website in BbLearn

When It’s Available – LAST WEEK OF CLASSES – NOT EXAM PERIOD

• Opens – Midnight Thursday Morning  12/4 
• Closes – 11:59PM Sunday Evening 12/7

How Much Does It Count?

• 18% of the total grade

What is on it?

• 75% Multiple Choice + True/False + Multiple Answers (more than one answer per question possible)
  • These are drawn from the lectures and the labs in the course.
  • A few require you to be careful in your thinking, but most are straightforward.
• 15% – Calculation Questions based on the labs
  • The description and logic for calculating the answer are the same, but each student will see different numbers
• 10% – 200 words or more on the Best or Worst (or Both) Aspects of CAEE-201 – graded on being specific, not on your opinions.

May I take It More than Once?

• Yes, you may take it up to three times – each time you have 3 hours
• You will not receive your score after taking the assessment– not until I have graded the essays after the assessment closes
• You may not save and resume during one instance of the test.
• Each time you take it the numbers for the calculations and the order of the questions will probably be different.
• You should assume that we will use the grade from the last instance that you take the assessment.