So at the end of the class, there are really
two major forms of assessment.
One is an online written exam, which
is an exam where the questions and the way to submit
the answers is fully online.
And that link is unveiled, and then I
give three to four days for the students to answer this exam.
It is an open book, open internet exam.
They can use any materials they want, but no collaboration.
So I don't have a formal way to check for this
but essentially it's an individual exam.
And by submitting the answers online,
again using for example a mechanism like Google Forms,
you can relatively quickly compare the answers and grade
these exams very efficiently and also see
if there's any patterns.
So this is a way to essentially check individual learning
with all the materials at hand.
The way I structure the online exam
is a mix of multiple-choice questions, essay questions,
but also some calculations.
And the exam starts with some very easy questions
that can be referenced in readings or materials
in textbooks, interpretive questions.
And then they get progressively more difficult.
And the last two questions--
in one of the questions, I give them a calculation
that they have to do that has a very non-obvious answer.
And it's interesting to see some students that
force an answer that's not actually the right answer
because somehow they believe that any question given
on an exam must have this one correct answer.
And other students scratch their heads and say,
I don't think this question has the right answer.
And so it's a very interesting thing
because, in the real world, you often get requirements
from customers that are unrealistic or can't
be fulfilled.
And so the purpose of these questions
is to really get students to think and connect
the material to real-world situations
that they will encounter.
In the last question, I then ask about systems
engineering-relevant things that have happened that they
might have seen in the news.
So for example, one year I asked about the Volkswagen emissions
scandal, which is very related to system engineering, trade
offs between fuel efficiency, cost, NOx emissions.
It's very much current affairs.
This year, I asked the students about the problems
that Samsung experienced with their Galaxy Note 7 batteries
and what is the root cause of those problems.
And how are those problems related to the material
that we teach in class?
So I recommend that one of the last questions
connect the students with things that they're
seeing in the news.
The oral exam is given either in person in the same room
or through an online platform like Skype or WebEx or Google
Hangouts.
The quality of the online experience,
the image, the sound, is generally so good
that there's virtually no difference
between doing the oral exam in person or over the web.
And the oral exam is anywhere between 15 to 20 minutes
per student.
That doesn't sound like a lot of time,
but with well-structured questions you can learn a lot
and have a great dialogue with the students.
I try to put the students at ease.
It is more a discussion than a classical exam.
Nevertheless, it's a great way for them
to engage with the material again,
to engage with us as instructors and TAs,
and usually it sort of puts a nice bow on the class,
and it's a nice finishing touch to the class.
Logistically, the way we do the oral exam
is we open up typically one or two full days.
So I have to reserve a couple of days
on my calendar just dedicated to the oral exams.
And then there's sign-up slots where
students can just sign up online and show up at the right time.
And it's been working pretty well.