Kwai Chiu
Assessment Institute
Spring 2014
MA 128 Course Assessment Report
Overview of Course Assessment
MA 128, Calculus for Technical and Business Students, is a second-level course
required for the following curricula in the Associate in Applied Science (AAS) Degree
program. It is also one of the General Education core requirements for these curricula.
 Computer Engineering Technology
 Electronic Engineering Technology
 Computerized Architectural Technology
 Laser and Fiber Optics Technology
 Mechanical Engineering Technology
 Telecommunications Technology
Student Learning Outcomes and General Education Objectives
This assessment will focus on the following Student Learning Outcomes:
3) Student will be able to work with the concept of derivatives
4) Student will be able to work with the concept of integration
5) Student will be able to determine and apply appropriate mathematical methods
and skills to solve problem
These outcomes also pertain to the General Education Objective (2) use analytical
reasoning to identify issues or problems and evaluate evidence in order to make informed
decisions and (3) reason quantitatively and mathematically as required in their fields of
interest and in everyday life. (For the complete Student Learning Outcomes for MA 128
and General Education Objective, see Appendix A and Appendix B)
More Descriptions about those three Student Learning Outcomes being assessed
3) Student will be able to work with the concept of derivatives
Assessment consists of three parts
(a) Can students identify an appropriate method in taking the derivative of a
function by power rule, product rule, quotient rule and chain rule?
(b) Can students compute the derivative of a function?
(c) Can students simplify the derivative in the simplest form?
4) Student will be able to work with the concept of integration
Assessment consists of two parts
(d) Can students identify an appropriate method in taking the integral of a
function by simple rules and substitution?
(e) Can students compute the integral of a function?
5) Student will be able to determine and apply appropriate mathematical methods
and skills to solve problem
Assessment consists of two parts
(f) Can students find the maximum and the minimum of a polynomial and any
other mathematical model by applying the derivative concept they learned?
(g) Can students find the area between two curves by applying the integration
concept they learned?
Assessment Measures
Instrument: A collaborative 30 minute quiz will be designed to assess the three
Student Outcomes described above. The quiz will be distributed to all participated
instructors teaching MA 128. Instructors will be asked to conduct this quiz in the
following week. All quizzes will be collected. Primary investigator(s) will record
students’ performance on each question that corresponded to the topics chosen for the
learning outcomes. Numerical results from these quiz questions are then converted to
percentage scores and finally standardized into the scores of 1, 2, 3, and 4 using the
scoring categories below.
Scoring system: Each question carries 100 points. Primary investigator will score
each question in the scale from 0 to 100. These scores are then converted to a score of 1,
2, 3 or 4 based on the following scoring categories. The scores are then tabulated in a
frequency table to give a combined overview of the students’ performance in the three
chosen learning outcomes.
Scoring categories:
Categories
Numeric Categories
1. Exceeds expectations
2. Meets expectations
3. Approaches expectations
4. Does not meet expectations
80 – 100
65 – 79
50 – 64
Below 50
Student Assignment for Assessment
Primary investigator conducted a 30 minutes quiz (please see Attachment A) to
assess how well the above outcomes are met. It was given during the later part of the
semester. In Spring 2014, we offered 7 sections of MA 128. Of which 5 sections
participated in this assessment. Totally we have result from 46 students.
Evidence
The following table summarizes the number of students and percentage in each
category. (Please see Attachment B for details)
Student Learning Outcomes
SLO3: Student will be able to work with the concept of derivatives
SLO4: Student will be able to work with the concept of integration
SLO5: Student will be able to determine and apply appropriate mathematical methods
and skills to solve problem
Frequency Distribution
n=46
SLO3
1 Exceeds
10
2 Meets
11
3 Approaches
11
4 Does Not Meet
14
Total
46
SLO4
9
9
11
17
46
Relative Frequency Distribution
n=46
SLO3
SLO4
1 Exceeds
21.7% 19.6%
2 Meets
23.9% 19.6%
3 Approaches
23.9% 23.9%
4 Does Not Meet
30.4% 37.0%
Total
100.0% 100.0%
SLO5
6
8
7
25
46
SLO5
13.0%
17.4%
15.2%
54.3%
100.0%
Results from this study show that Student Learning Outcome 5, which asks students to
demonstrate the ability to apply appropriate mathematical methods and skills to solve
problem, was not met. Only 30.4% of the students meet and exceed expectation.
In addition, student performance was also low in Student Learning Outcome 3 & 4, with
merely 45.7% and 39.1% of the students meeting or exceeding the expectation. These
Student Learning Outcomes ask students to demonstrate the ability to work with the
concept of derivatives and integration.
Note that the question chosen for SLO5 assessment was carefully designed so that the
students’ performance in SLO3 & 4 would not affect the result in assessing SLO5. In
fact, detail study shows 50% of the students performed better in SLO5 compare to SLO3
and 50% of the students performed worse. Therefore the result of SLO5 is independent of
the result of SLO3.
Actions (to address results)
Department’s ongoing effort is to continue to improve our program and our
courses. With the help of this assessment, department and instructors can further identify
and concentrate on the areas where students need more improvement in. In the following
fall, instructors should gather at the beginning of the semester to discuss any concrete
plan for improvement.
Attachment A
MA-128
Assessment (Spring 2014)
_________________
Please show your work clearly
1. Find
dy
for each function
dx
(a) y  (3x 2  5x  7)9
(b) y  5 3x  1
(c) y  (3x 4  8)  e x
(d) y 
x3  2
ex
2. Find each integral
(a)
 8e
x
dx
Name:
5
(b)
  x  dx
(c)
 4x
(d)
 7 dx
15
dx
3. Given the profit function P( x)  12 x  5  3x 2 where x is the production level in
thousand and P is the profit in million dollars. Applying the derivative concept you
learned, find the production level that yields the maximum profit. What is the maximum
profit?
Attachment B
Student No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
Max Pt
Average %
1a
15
15
15
0
20
0
10
18
15
20
20
0
15
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
15
0
0
20
5
20
15
20
20
20
15
0
20
18
20
20
20
20
20
20
15
12
20
20
20
25
62.4%
1b
5
0
15
0
0
5
0
0
0
25
25
0
0
20
20
20
20
20
20
15
20
15
0
0
25
0
0
0
20
13
0
0
0
20
20
20
15
10
18
15
20
10
15
20
20
18
25
45.6%
1c
25
0
20
0
0
25
25
0
0
25
0
0
0
20
20
25
20
25
15
15
0
23
22
0
15
10
18
10
20
15
20
20
0
25
18
20
20
20
20
20
15
15
10
20
0
10
25
56.2%
1d
10
0
20
0
0
20
20
15
0
0
0
20
0
20
20
20
20
25
15
15
20
15
25
0
20
0
13
20
20
15
20
15
0
20
10
20
15
18
20
20
20
15
8
20
13
15
25
55.4%
Total
55
15
70
0
20
50
55
33
15
70
45
20
15
80
80
85
80
90
70
65
60
68
47
0
80
15
51
45
80
63
60
50
0
85
66
80
70
68
78
75
75
55
45
80
53
63
100
54.9%
Score
3
4
2
4
4
3
3
4
4
2
4
4
4
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
3
2
4
4
1
4
3
4
1
3
3
3
4
1
2
1
2
2
2
2
2
3
4
1
3
3
No. of Participated Students
46
Scores
1
2
3
4
No. of Students
10
11
11
14
Max Pt
Average %
Sum of 1&2
Sum of 3&4
Percentage
21.7%
23.9%
23.9%
30.4%
SLO3
45.7%
54.3%
2a
15
25
25
0
0
0
20
20
15
25
0
0
5
15
0
25
15
25
25
20
20
0
25
20
20
5
15
15
0
15
0
10
0
25
15
15
12
15
20
5
25
25
0
25
0
0
25
52.3%
2b
0
5
20
0
0
0
5
5
5
20
0
0
10
15
0
25
20
15
20
5
20
15
0
5
5
0
0
5
0
5
5
5
0
20
0
10
5
15
20
20
5
15
0
20
20
25
25
35.7%
2c
20
5
25
10
0
20
25
25
5
25
25
20
20
20
20
25
15
0
20
5
10
0
15
0
20
20
15
5
5
20
15
10
15
25
0
0
18
20
25
20
25
15
0
25
5
15
25
58.5%
2d
15
25
25
0
15
15
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
15
15
25
5
25
25
25
25
15
15
25
25
15
15
0
15
25
15
15
25
25
25
5
23
15
25
15
25
25
0
25
5
25
25
75.9%
Total
50
60
95
10
15
35
75
75
50
95
50
45
60
65
35
100
55
65
90
55
75
30
55
50
70
40
45
25
20
65
35
40
40
95
40
30
58
65
90
60
80
80
0
95
30
65
100
55.6%
Score
3
3
1
4
4
4
2
2
3
1
3
4
3
2
4
1
3
2
1
3
2
4
3
3
2
4
4
4
4
2
4
4
4
1
4
4
3
2
1
3
1
1
4
1
4
2
Scores
1
2
3
4
No. of Students
9
9
11
17
Max Pt
Average %
Sum of 1&2
Sum of 3&4
Percentage
19.6%
19.6%
23.9%
37.0%
SLO4
39.1%
60.9%
3
25
10
85
10
55
70
85
40
10
85
85
25
10
70
25
70
65
55
25
25
10
60
55
10
55
10
25
25
70
25
10
25
25
85
55
10
10
70
70
60
70
25
10
85
10
10
125
41.4%
Score
4
4
1
4
3
2
1
4
4
1
1
4
4
2
4
2
2
3
4
4
4
3
3
4
3
4
4
4
2
4
4
4
4
1
3
4
4
2
2
3
2
4
4
1
4
4
Scores
1
2
3
4
No. of Students
6
8
7
25
Sum of 1&2
Sum of 3&4
Percentage
13.0%
17.4%
15.2%
54.3%
SLO5
30.4%
69.6%