Ronald Welch

The Assessment of Teaching

The role of the teacher in the classroom carries tremendous responsibility. A group of students that can range from a half-dozen to several hundred depend on their professor to provide structure to a body of knowledge, to guide the learning process, to convey difficult subjects in a clear manner, to lead the classroom and out-of-class activities so that student time is used efficiently, and to provide a course of instruction in which the students can successfully complete the learning objectives. And somehow, the teacher is expected to establish some rapport with these students along the way. How does the teacher know when he or she is doing well? And how does someone who oversees a program know that the program’s faculty members are teaching at an appropriate standard? This Teaching Lessons Learned installment attempts to answer these questions, using tools and techniques currently in use at the U.S. Military Academy as illustrations.

Project-Based Independent Study Capstone Course

This paper describes a unique project-based course used successful by the ABET-Accredited Civil Engineering Program at the United States Military Academy (USMA) to greatly enhance the academic program. The three general project classifications available within this senior course are service-based (i.e., USMA, the Army, local community, etc.), competition-based (i.e., steel bridge, concrete canoe, timber bridge, Big Beam), and research-based. The exceptional student work provided at little to no cost to the client has opened up a ground swell of service and research projects now constantly offered to the program coordinator by prospective clients. The authors believe these independent study projects are successful due to their students being prepared through open-ended design in nearly every course we offer and through some initial project-based learning in earlier courses. The mix of these open-ended projects usually ensures that each student can list a minimum of 3-5 project choices that meet their individual needs for a challenging, yet rewarding academic experience. Approximately 90-98 percent of the senior CE majors each year choose to work on one of these open-ended projects. With 45 to 60 CE majors graduating each year, it is easy to understand that one faculty member cannot advise the required 15-20 projects each spring. So many, if not all, of the CE program’s 17 faculty must buy-in to the project-based senior program from the onset. It will be shown through student assessment that this form of experience not only challenges, but also motivates the students like no other aspect of their academic experience. The students are providing a solution to a real world problem for a real client. The assessment will show that the students find project-based learning demanding, but enjoyable and worthwhile because it forces them to push the boundaries of their knowledge through initiative, self-study, perseverance, and creativity.