Search

Benefits of peer-assessments have been recognized for quite some time. Research has shown that the impact of peer-evaluations on students' learning experience, is one that is positive and focuses on building critical thinking and metacognitive skills. This research aims to provide insight on the opportunities and effects of integrating peer-assessments in a University of Waterloo first-year engineering course's model as the primary assessment method. To explore this, Kritik, a third-party platform that focuses on peer-learning through peerassessment, was used as part of a solid mechanics course offered to first year engineering students at the University of Waterloo. In this course, first-year engineering students were required to complete various hands-on lab activities, and a final project as a group. Once submitting their initial work on the platform, they were then required to individually assess their peers' work, and then individually reflect on the grades that they received. The grade they received for their group work, the quality of their peer evaluations, and the feedback they provided on the grades they received from their peers were all factors of their final individual grade for each assessment. This encouraged students to evaluate each other's work in a genuine manner--increasing the viability of their evaluations. The results show an increase in understanding of course concepts, less stress on the teaching team due to reduced grading, and an increase in opportunity for the students to fully experience what the course offers in a realistic time frame--an opportunity that is scarce due to the length of academic terms and the sheer amount of course content to be taught. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the evolution of a first-year engineering mechanics course, Solid Mechanics I, over the two iterations that it has been flipped. It discusses the teaching strategies that have and haven't worked when delivering the course in both an online and hybrid approach. These include recommended durations for lecture videos, types of assessments, grade distributions, etc. Flipping the classroom was a result of the forced transition online due to Covid-19. To best support the students in the unprecedented times, the instructor opted to combine components from both asynchronous and synchronous teaching styles. Asynchronous lecture videos were accompanied by synchronous class time where the instructor clarified concepts, demonstrated real-life applications, solved higher-level problems, and implemented group activities. A combination of these active learning strategies was the key to structuring the course to keep the students engaged despite being online for all, or part, of the term as delivered in Fall 2020 and Fall 2021, respectively. In the Fall 2020 iteration, the course was delivered fully online to roughly 325 students in civil, environmental, geological, and architectural engineering. Since then, the course had been improved and adjusted in response to the students' feedback collected from an end-of-term survey. Approximately 270 students were enrolled in the course in the subsequent Fall 2021 term which took a hybrid approach as Covid-19 restrictions began to lighten. With students being able to learn in-person again, the course had shifted to emphasize student-to-student and student-toinstructor interactions. Feedback became immediate, allowing for the course to be molded to the students' satisfaction as the term progressed. Changes between the two years have been documented in the paper along with recommendations for future adaptations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]