• Engineering Education Research Center

Why Use Assessments

for Capstone Engineering Design?

Engineering educators across the U.S. call for practical, effective assessments to measure student achievement in engineering design. Engineering design performance includes both growth of the design professional and creation of a design solution of value to stakeholders.

Valid assessment instruments must also derive from a conceptual model of engineering design encompassing performances important to the educational researcher, the design instructor, and the engineering professional.

 

Why Assess Design Performance?

Engineering educators must assess students’ design performance because:

1. Design is vital to engineering, a distinguishing skill of engineering professionals,
2. ABET accreditation requires assessment of students’ abilities to design , and
3. Assessment feedback is essential for guiding ongoing improvement of design education.

 

Why These Assessments?

Few proven assessments exist for engineering design. Engineering educators nationally admit difficulty assessing student performance in capstone engineering design courses. Difficulty stems from: (a) complexity of design activity, (b) lack of assessment training, and (c) varied expectations of capstone course instructors. Assessments included in this package have been developed for applicability across disciplines, ease of implementation, and validity.

 

What are Design Learning Outcomes?

Valid assessments stand upon clear definitions of learner development that distinguish the novice from the expert in the field. A review of design literature shows that design achievement encompasses performances of two fundamental types: learner development and solution development. In this light, four types of design learning outcomes emerge: (1) personal capacity, team processes, solution requirements, and solution assets. Learners individually develop personal capacity in areas such as problem solving, achievement of personal goals, professionalism, and self-growth.  Together with team members they develop team processes that include collaboration, project and personnel management, decision making, and growing team performance. A critical early achievement in development of design solutions is a set of solution requirements that carefully represent voices of the customer, business, technology, and society. And finally, solution assets give proof of desired performance, profitability, feasibility, and impact on society that have been achieved. Each of these four design outcomes is a focus for assessing student achievement.

 

What is the Context of Design Assessment?

In assessment of design, one must consider the dynamic iterative nature of design. Achievement is first constrained and then motivated by challenges arising during the project. When challenges are addressed through effective processes, they produce outcomes contributing to learner or solution development. Measuring achievement of design outcomes (personal capacity, team processes, solution requirements, and solution assets) assesses students’ design performance.

The figure below illustrates how principal elements of the design process relate to learner and solution development along the project timeline. The four design outcomes to be assessed are highlighted by star backgrounds.

 

How are the Design Outcomes Defined?

Performance criteria state desired performance for each outcome. Student performance relevant to a capstone engineering design course is defined below.

Outcome	Performance Criteria
Personal Capacity	Individuals accomplish challenging goals related to design by employing goal-driven initiative, competence in problem solving, integrity and professionalism, and ongoing reflective development of their personal abilities.
Team Processes	The team achieves challenging goals in productivity and team function by strategic use of team resources, synergistic collaboration, decisions that add real value, and assessment-driven refinement of processes.
Solution Specification	Specifications reflect in-depth understanding of customer needs, business issues, state of the technology, and societal concerns about the solution, and provide clear targets for development of a valuable solution.
Solution Realization	Design solutions meet or exceed expectations of stakeholders by delivering proven value in desired functionality, economic benefits, implementation feasibility, and favorable impacts on society.

 

 

How is Achievement of Outcomes Assessed?

Each of the four design outcomes is assessed by separate instruments. Administration of an assessment may occur in different ways to provide feedback for learning (formative) or to assign definitive scores or grades for performances (summative). Assessment instruments, uses, and procedures are explained by materials that accompany each assessment.