Extending the usefulness of the Signals and Systems Concept Inventory (SSCI)

The Signals and Systems Concept Inventory is an extremely useful assessment tool that has been widely used and analyzed. The authors have applied it in a variety of situations outside its typical usage. These situations include comparing international students to US students, introducing concept inventories to international faculty, supporting an ABET evaluation report, evaluating the effect of electives on conceptual understanding, analyzing the effect of time between courses on the conceptual understanding, and considering the effect of visual learning style on student performance on a largely graphical test. The SSCI has proven to be a flexible tool that makes student understanding visible and quantifiable in all these situations.