CISLE | Meduri Praveen | Embedded Systems | Supporting student learning • Exemplar work • multiple submissions on assignments

 

CPE 151 Embedded Systems | Supporting student learning • Exemplar work • multiple submissions on assignments

Reflection on Instructional Change:

"This course is required for graduation for Computer Engineering (CPE) students. Typically students take this course around their Junior year, before senior capstone project. This course is required for graduation. I chose the following ACUE strategy: Implement Grading Practices to support student success. (i) Exemplar usage and (ii) providing multiple opportunities for submission. 

Students are required to submit 2 short youtube videos ( up to 2 min each) demonstrating the proper functioning of their lab modules in simulation and hardware for each lab. I provide exemplar videos from previous semesters, as a reference for what constitutes an excellent submission. This example was a student submission from previous semesters, shared with permission from the student. In addition, students are also given opportunity to resubmit their assignment as many times as they feel necessary to master the concept. This mastery based grading philosophy encourages students to make mistakes and explore and learn from the mistakes, and master the concepts along the way. 

The Observe and Analyze (O&A) session was particularly helpful in successfully implementing this strategy. Deadlines was an issue with multiple submissions. Initially, I had all submissions due at the end of the semester. But, talking to peers in the O&A, I decided to modify this course so as to implement firm deadlines through out the semester, with room for exceptions under reasonable and unforeseen circumstances that students may face.

The one aha moment from the O&A session is that being firm with deadlines is not in and of of itself a non-inclusive method. Just allowing for flexibility to accommodate students' special circumstances is enough. 

Evidence of Instructional Change

Canvas Landing Page

Exemplar student work sample provided to students to help submission

ACUE Micro-credential and badge

Practice and Reflect on: Helping Students Persist

I plan to use feedback to carefully foster a growth mindset in my course. Specifically, I want to provide timely and specific feedback to each student on their quizzes, coupled with explanation of how learning will contribute to their career goals. I used auto-graded quizzes in the past and I continue to use them. But I realize that the LMS provides opportunity to provide feedback about why the choice selected by the student is correct/wrong could be helpful. This kind of specific timely feedback could be helpful in encouraging learning and growth mindset. Furthermore, by making an explicit connection between the learning and students' long-term career goals, I believe I can enhance their intrinsic motivation. This is particularly important in my course because it is more a skills based course, where students learn a bag of tools and skill set that are directly useful in their careers as engineers. In order to refine my use of practice, I will reach out to my colleagues to see how they make the connection between learning and long-term goals for the students. I will also discuss with my colleagues how they use feedback effectively. 

 

Faculty Bio

I am Praveen, an Assistant Professor in EEE at Sacramento State. I received my PhD from Old Dominion University, VA and MS from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. I am passionate about teaching Electronics courses. I enjoy studying Indian philosophical literature like Bhagavad Gita. I enjoy self help genre as well and love the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

 

This work was supported by: National Science Foundation Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM Zone DUE 1832335 CSU Office of the Chancellor Academic Affairs grant for Faculty Professional Development US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM4Equity P031C210012 *Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the US Department of Education.