Technical and logistical support for course assessment

Abstract

Course assessment is a valuable tool for improving teaching and learning in a class. As part of the course assessment project being started for 6.042 and several other EECS classes, students took diagnostic entry exams and end-of-term surveys in which they were asked to rate themselves on various objectives of the class. I examined this data along with the students' grades, and performed calculations such as finding correlation coefficients to determine what areas of the course might need improvement. After analyzing four semesters of 6.042, it was discovered that the correlation coefficients were not as high as expected. However, the results are still useful in assessing the course, and with several improvements to the current assessment procedure, future results may be more clear.