Fall 2013 Course and Curriculum Assessment Review
UG Committee Evaluation Completed: March 18, 2014
Final update: May 6, 2014
General Action Items:
1.
Review the student feedback on competency proficiency for your Fall 2013 class(es)
(located on the J drive groups\chemeFaculty\competency feedback\Fall 2013). For at least the three competencies with the greatest number of “No” responses, consider possible improvements for your course for the Fall 2014 semester. Responsible: ALL
2.
For each course you teach, review the action item(s) listed in this document before the semester begins and respond to them in your course evaluation at the end of the Fall 2014 semester. If you are teaching a course for the first time, you should look at the past history of action items to provide guidance for your course preparation. Responsible: ALL
3.
Before the students fill out the ABET competency evaluations at the end of the semester, spend a few minutes in class reviewing the subset of competencies being evaluated. A simple, brief review of material that the students have covered is likely to improve the feedback and help them to feel more confident about their preparation. There is no need to leave the room during this process, which was carry-over from the time when paperbased instructor evaluations were conducted at the same time . The UG Committee is recommending that the faculty and/or TA’s handle the in-class distribution of the forms.
Responsible: ALL
4.
Ongoing Feedback Loop: Competency 6.6 (rationalize units, order of magnitude estimates/reasonableness) recommended to be assessed throughout the curriculum. Possible ideas: Teaching Moment in faculty meeting; benchmark assessments in quiz, exam, etc.; clicker or Poll Everywhere exercises. Responsible: All faculty, with support and development by the Undergraduate Committee .
Competency Changes:
1.
Closed Feedback Loop: The following competency changes were made: a.
ChEn 374: Delete “power-law” from 3.3.4 to read “Students will be able to determine velocity profiles for steady-state, laminar flow in simple geometries for
Newtonian fluids.” b.
ChEn 374: Reword 10.3.3 from “Students will be able to design flow systems involving pipes and pumps for power-law fluids” to “Students will be able to calculate pressure drop in flow systems involving pipes and pumps for non-
Newtonian fluids.” c.
ChEn 436: Change 10.5.3 from “Students will be able to perform preliminary valve sizing and understand the interaction of the valve with other process components” to
“Students will be able to design valves in flow control applications.”
2.
Feedback Loop: The following competency changes are recommended: a.
ChEn 170: Replace the current competencies with the following five that reflect the new lab-based course format. (Now that the pilot is being adopted, these changes are planned for the Fall 2014 assessment.) Responsible Faculty: UG
Committee/Tommy.
1.
Explain fundamental physical principles of chemical engineering observed through hands-on design projects, in-class activities, and laboratory experiments. The selected principles will pertain to material and energy

2 balances, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, chemical reaction engineering, and separations.
2.
Identify and explain the value of the types of problems that chemical engineers solve.
3.
Demonstrate basic skills of problem solving, including engineering design, effective teamwork, and analysis of economic, environmental, and safety issues.
4.
Accurately interpret and effectively communicate technical information by written and oral means.
5.
Identify the practices needed to succeed as a chemical engineering student and decide whether to continue the program. b.
ChEn 374:
Change 10.3.2 from (“Students will be able to select, based on performance characteristics and operational constraints, the appropriate kind of pumps (positive displacement, radial, axial, etc.), turbines (impulse, Francis, Kaplan, etc.), and valves for a given application.”) to “Students will be able to select, based on performance characteristics and operational constraints, the appropriate kind of pumps (positive displacement, radial, axial, etc.) and valves for a specific application.”
Responsible Faculty: UG Committee/Tommy.
ChEn 170:
1.
Closed Feedback Loop: The course was significantly modified this semester to include a series of labs, project based learning, and design experiences. In general, the revision appears to be well-received by the students.
2.
Ongoing Feedback Loop: A proposal for competency reduction, as suggested in previous assessments, was made by the instructor, as noted below. Since this was a pilot course, these changes were not implemented before assessing if the course changes would be permanent, which now appears to be the case. Therefore, the existing competencies will be replaced with the following list for the Fall 2014 assessment cycle. Responsible:
Undergraduate Committee (Tommy and Morris) .
1.
Explain fundamental physical principles of chemical engineering observed through hands-on design projects, in-class activities, and laboratory experiments. The selected principles will pertain to material and energy balances, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, chemical reaction engineering, and separations.
2.
Identify and explain the value of the types of problems that chemical engineers solve.
3.
Demonstrate basic skills of problem solving, including engineering design, effective teamwork, and analysis of economic, environmental, and safety issues.
4.
Accurately interpret and effectively communicate technical information by written and oral means.
5.
Identify the practices needed to succeed as a chemical engineering student and decide whether to continue the program.
3.
The instructor noted that the students were weak in material and energy balances due to the introductory nature of the course. This issue should be addressed as the new, broader competencies are implemented in Fall 2014 as part of item 2.
ChEn 191:
1.
Ongoing Feedback Loop: The instructor reduced the interruptions to the class by not breaking for AIChE meetings or Dean’s lectures. The UG Committee recommends keeping a connection with both, perhaps by having the AIChE officers come to class for

3 introductions and perhaps a brief presentation and ask the students to attend at least one
AIChE meeting and constructing assignments to assess the Dean’s lecture attendance.
Responsible: 191 instructor.
ChEn 263:
1.
Closed Feedback Loop: Competency 5.4.2 (“Students will be able to write program structures, and understand when programming is most appropriate”) has shown consistent improvement as the expectations have been communicated better. This issue is now closed, but will continue to be monitored with all others as part of our regular process.
2.
Closed Feedback Loop: Temperature units in Mathcad. The class presentation is optimized and the students are generally excelling here.
3.
Closed Feedback Loop: L3 Exam highly missed concept for VBA project. In 2011, the instructor implemented the VBA project mentioned previously on heat exchanger solutions using the log-mean temperature method. Based on UG Committee feedback, the instructor carefully structured the project and monitored the time the students spent on the project by formal survey (9.9 hours) and were given time both within class and outside of class
(through a reduction in other 263 homework) to complete it. Their performance was outstanding. The instructor wishes to continue to monitor future performance on the L3 exam to evaluate the effectiveness of the effort.
4.
The instructor identified several personalized improvements that the UG Committee recommends continuing, but they do not require monitoring above the instructor level.
ChEn 311:
No issues.
ChEn 374:
1.
Closed Feedback Loop: Power law fluids. Competency 10.3.3 (“Students will be able to design flow systems involving pipes and pumps for power-law fluids”) was reworded to read “Students will be able to calculate pressure drop in flow systems involving pipes and pumps for non-Newtonian fluids.” and “power-law” was deleted from competency 3.3.4
(“Students will be able to determine velocity profiles for steady-state, laminar flow in simple geometries for Newtonian and power-law fluids.”) to read “Students will be able to determine velocity profiles for steady-state, laminar flow in simple geometries for
Newtonian fluids.”
2.
Closed Feedback Loop: Environmental and safety considerations. The instructor included two new lectures on environmental and safety topics (by reducing the exam results reviews), as well as a homework assignment on atmospheric mixing/pollutant dispersion and a safety problem on the final. The UG Committee commends this—keep up the good work.
3.
Feedback Loop Closed: The instructor recommends skipping coverage of turbines to cover more ChE specific topics like mixing and flow in porous media. The UG Committee agrees
(and the competency change is in item 4 below), although briefly discussing impulse turbines as pump/compressor drivers is still recommended.
4.
Competency Change: Change 10.3.2 from (“Students will be able to select, based on performance characteristics and operational constraints, the appropriate kind of pumps
(positive displacement, radial, axial, etc.), turbines (impulse, Francis, Kaplan, etc.), and valves for a given application.”) to “Students will be able to select, based on performance characteristics and operational constraints, the appropriate kind of pumps (positive

4 displacement, radial, axial, etc.) and valves for a specific application.” Responsible
Faculty: UG Committee/Tommy.
5.
Cover safety valve sizing calculations. Responsible Faculty: 374 instructor.
ChEn 378:
1.
The instructor addressed the highest “No” (11.3%) competency (3.2.3, “Students will understand crystal structure including nomenclature, packing, and defects.”) on multiple fronts with outstanding results: there were zero “No” responses this assessment. Keep up the good work.
2.
The instructor noted that the reading questions helped student learning and should be continued.
ChEn 391:
1.
Ongoing Feedback Loop: UG Committee assessment of ChEn 391 effectiveness and possible improvements. This UG Committee discussed this and the possible addition of a
291 sophomore seminar at some length, but decided to postpone changes for now.
However, it remains on our agenda for future work. Responsible: UG Committee.
2.
One instructor recommended formalizing the process for internships, co-ops, and other employment by requiring students to formally apply for 2 internships and creating LinkedIn accounts. The UG Committee likes the idea of encouraging and recommending this, but we feel it should not be required, partially because many of our students go to graduate school and are not seeking these type of employment opportunities and also because it may overwhelm the recruiters at the Career Fair. However, we are including this suggestion to share the idea with the other instructors. One idea that the committee discussed as a possible compromise is to have the students go to the BYU careers website to search for 3 opportunities that interest them, as this would expose them to opportunities without potentially interfering with the students who are actively pursuing these opportunities.
ChEn 436:
1.
Closed Feedback Loop : Valve “sizing”. Competency 10.5.3 (“Students will be able to perform preliminary valve sizing and understand the interaction of the valve with other process components”) was reworded, "Students will be able to design valves in flow control applications."
2.
Feedback Loop : Despite the rewording, competency 10.5.3 remains a high “No.” The UG
Committee discussed what this competency is intended to mean in association with Fluid
Mechanics (ChEn 374) and Plant Design (ChEn 451). To be in accord with these classes, we proposed rewording once more to read “Students will have a qualitative understanding of the role of valves in process control.” We invite the instructor’s comments.
Responsible:
ChEn 436 instructor.
3.
Ongoing Feedback Loop : The instructor followed the UG Committee recommendation of spending a little more time on competencies 4.1 and 4.4 and making the exposure more applied/practical, which we commend. We are still working on the overall discussion of the scope and content of the course with concerned constituents. Responsible: ChEn 436 instructor with the UG Committee, Industrial Advisory Board, and ChEn 374 and 451 instructors.
ChEn 475:

5
1.
Feedback Loop: Although our department had previously worked out acceptable coverage within Stats 201 of regression analysis with the Statistics Department, it appears to have regressed (pun intended). The UG Committee needs to open this dialogue back up. One faculty member mentioned a positive experience with using Igor as a statistics tool, rather than having the students use Excel or Mathcad to do the calucations. Responsible:
Undergraduate Committee.
2.
Ongoing Feedback Loop: Problem based learning was implemented in one of three sections. The results are being assessed and consideration given to expanding to other sections. Responsible: Undergraduate Committee and ChEn 475 instructors.
3.
Ongoing Feedback Loop: Proposals to simplify the competency structure will be considered later in 2014/early 2015 as the decisions about problem based learning content are made in item 2. Responsible: ChEn 475 instructors and UG Committee.
4.
One instructor was concerned about inadequacy of the number of heat transfer experiments, but this should be addressed with item 2. Responsible: ChEn 475 instructors and UG
Committee.
ChEn 476:
1.
Feedback Loop: The instructor is working to find a better way to teach mass transfer, which has perennially been a weak subject among the students across several instructors.
The instructor is considering reading questions and has suggested consideration of this topic across the curriculum. The UG Committee suggests addressing the physics before the math to help students gain better intuitive understanding, but also commend you to keep trying.
We also discussed options in UO and Plant Design with more packed columns that could deepen the programmatic exposure, but we are not committing to that at this time.
Responsible: ChEn 476 instructor.
2.
Feedback Loop: The instructor is seeking a better way to assess simulator proficiency.
The ChEn 451 instructor has some ideas to share, so please contact him. Responsible:
ChEn 476 instructor.
3.
The instructor was disappointed by the students’ technical reading ability after trying a couple of methods. One suggestion from UG Committee is to assign a topic from the book for the students to read to develop their skills in this area, then assess by assigning a homework problem or two without covering the topic in class.