Progress in developing a web-based database-driven curriculum assessment tool

CHED 1784

David A Kofke1, Jeffrey R. Errington2, and Andrew Schultz1. (1) Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, 303 Furnas Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260-4200, (2) Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Univeristy at Buffalo, The State University of New York, 303 Furnas Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260-4200
We describe progress in developing a tool to manage the assessment of student performance in our courses and to aid in collecting information needed to design and update our curriculum. The tool employs a web-based architecture, fronting a database that contains information about knowledge areas in chemical engineering and skills associated with each. The database maps these onto each other, and connects them to the courses in our curriculum. We developed a dynamic web page that permits instructors to input assessment data, which gets folded into the database in a way that permits analysis across different courses. The instructor selects a exam problem to analyze, and uploads the analysis information to the database via this page. In future developments we will add web portals through which our constituencies (employers and alumni) can provide feedback regarding the skills expected of our graduates and how well they are conveyed by the curriculum.