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 8.7 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.

Short Essay on Best or Worst Aspect of CAEE-201

I covered this in a separate post

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

• Opens – Midnight Thursday Morning  6/5 
• Closes – 11:59PM Sunday Evening 6/8

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.

Grading Notes–Attendance and Calculation Method

I’ve brought the attendance grades up to date through week-4.  You should check the attendance score and other grades now rather than at the end of the term.

Notes on the grading:

• Attendance scores are “raw”.  At the end of the term I will make an allowance for one missed lab and two missed lectures – a total of three.  This will improve your attendance score in the final grade calculation.
• Discussion and Lab scores are already adjusted to drop the lowest score in calculating the running total. 
• HOWEVER.  If you didn’t turn in a lab or discussion that one isn’t included in the calculation during the term.  IT WILL be included as a “0” at the end of the term so your overall grade could decrease