What's in a Grade? Current Practices and Strategies to Evaluate Learning in Engineering Courses

Faculty traditionally have used a variety of individual and group-based learning activities including homework assignments, exams, projects, reflection papers, and presentations in an effort to promote, enhance, assess, and evaluate students' knowledge and learning. More current research has suggested modifications to some of the historic assessment methodologies and technological advances that have potentially influenced the use of various assessment approaches. The authors pose the following question in this paper: How are faculty currently evaluating student learning and encouraging student success in engineering courses? This paper provides a summary of research into grading practices and then shares the results of a survey distributed nationally to engineering educators that investigated the grading policies and practices used in engineering courses to define the “state of practice.” Analysis of survey results provides insights into the grading systems, weighting, type of assignments, and policies in use by engineering faculty to determine final grades in courses. In addition to identifying major course components used, i.e., homework, projects/papers, quizzes, and exams, the survey results were used to characterize policies and practices such as extra credit, bonus points, and more unique tools, adopted by faculty to encourage students to learn material. This paper characterizes deliverables, assessment tools, and weightings used to assign a grade in engineering courses and identifies contingency practices that faculty use to incentivize, encourage, and support student success.