Teaching and assessment of students taking a first year, Level 7 subject: analysis and actions

This contribution critically analyses the teaching and assessment strategies used on the core Electrical Systems subject in the first year of a three-year, Level 7, degree programme in Electrical Engineering at Dublin Institute of Technology. The author has the responsibility for development and instruction in the subject since 2004. In the 2004-5 and 2005-6 academic years, the didactic teaching approach and the assessment strategy ensured good educational outcomes. This was not the case in the 2006-7 academic year. The contribution will analyse the reasons for this, taking an evidence-based approach (i.e. analysing the assessment data in detail). Two conclusions that are drawn are that students have reasonable breadth of knowledge of the basic material, but knowledge depth is limited, and that students perform better in laboratories and project work than in examinations. Subsequently, the actions taken to improve student learning in the 2007-8 academic year will be detailed, and some preliminary analysis of the resulting assessment data will be provided.