Increasing assessment effectiveness in a time of decreasing budgets

Challenged by the current economic downturn, engineering programs lack room in their budgets to increase efforts for improving assessment, yet still face pressures from accreditation and educational stakeholders to do so. This paper presents an innovative practice focused on promoting engineering-classroom assessment of student learning with efforts to overcome these challenges. The practice proposes a solution from three angles: establishment and use of learn assessment techniques is presented which builds on previous work and offers novel methods for classroom assessment. Early results are discussed for assessment techniques currently in use, including an innovative feedback tool. Those seeking ways to improve teaching and learning through assessment will find effective tools as well as implications of ABET accreditation. Future work includes evaluation of the assessment techniques currently being piloted and research implications fro integrating assessment into the culture of engineering education department.