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Winter 2013 Course and Curriculum Assessment Review
UG Committee Approved 6/24/13
No Faculty Revisions after distribution on 1/7/14
General Action Items:
1. Review the Y/N student feedback on competency proficiency for your Winter 2013 class(es)
located on the J drive (groups\chemeFaculty\competency feedback\Winter 2013).
(Unfortunately, for the Winter 2013 semester, the forms to collect the student comments on
proficiency were not distributed, so the feedback quality is not as high as that which is
normally obtained. However, you can still identify the competencies in which the students
felt weak.) For at least the three competencies with the greatest number of “No” responses,
consider possible improvements and document your efforts for your course next semester.
Submit with the next course assessment form. Responsible: ALL.
2. 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.
3. Ongoing Feedback Loop: The UG Committee is developing a comprehensive proposal to
consider the effectiveness of 391, along with the other seminar classes. Responsible
Faculty: Undergraduate Committee.
4. Ongoing Feedback Loop: Improve the UO experience for all involved. Problem based
learning projects for 475 to be implemented Fall 2013. Responsible Faculty: UG
Committee, 475 and 477 instructors, Mike Beliveau.
Competency Changes:
1. None made this cycle, although the ChEn 386 instructor recommended combining
competencies 3.6.6 (“Students will understand the effects of mass and heat transfer,
particularly pore diffusion, on heterogeneous catalytic systems.”) and 3.6.7 (“Students will
be exposed to the fundamentals of heterogeneous catalytic, and non-catalytic systems
including potentially limiting mass-transfer and reaction resistances.”). Please propose
revision. Responsible Faculty: 386 instructor.
ChEn 170:
1. Ongoing Feedback Loop: The course is being extensively revised to include more
problem/lab oriented learning, to be implemented this Fall. Along with this revision, the
competency list has been simplified. Responsible Faculty: UG Committee with previous
170 instructors.
ChEn 191:
1. No action items.
ChEn 273:
1. No action items.
2. The instructor mentioned that transient material balances were still a struggle, despite more
time spent in class on the subject.
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3. Feedback Loop: The UG Committee noted that many students did not feel confident on
Competency 3.3.3 “Students will be able to solve simple fluid statics problems (e.g.,
manometers, fluid head, etc.)”. Please evaluate. Responsible Faculty: 273 instructor.
ChEn 373:
1. The instructor will continue to work on improving the students’ performance on the
following competencies using targeted exam practice problems: (3.7.6: “Students will
understand the concept of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics and be able to
apply the second law to closed and open systems”) and transient problems (3.1.6: “Students
will be able to set up and solve simple transient energy balances”). Responsible Faculty:
373 instructor.
2. Closed Feedback Loop: Despite believing that some of the competencies (e.g., 3.2.1,
“Students will understand the phase behavior of pure substances in relationship to the
variables T, P, and density (including vapor pressure, critical point, freezing line, triple
point, etc.)” and 3.7.5 “Students will understand and be able to apply the concepts of heat
capacity, latent heat, heat of reaction, heat of combustion, and heat of formation”) are better
covered primarily in PChem, the instructor will continue to teach these subjects as the UG
Committee requested.
3. The instructor radically changed the exam structure to include 6 midterms that only
contained multiple-choice questions. He wants to assess if this affects student performance
in subsequent classes and on the L3 exam. Responsible Faculty: 373 instructor with
assistance from the UG Committee.
4. The instructor commented that the students were weak on competencies 3.7.7 (“Students
will understand the fundamental concepts of solution thermodynamics including chemical
potential, fugacity, activity, partial molar properties, ideal solutions, and excess properties.”)
and 3.7.5 (“Students will understand and be able to apply the concepts of heat capacity,
latent heat, heat of reaction, heat of combustion, and heat of formation.”).
ChEn 376:
1. Closed Feedback Loop: Instructor continued to teach using a unified Biot number
definition from text to improve teaching effectiveness and enhance student understanding.
2. Closed Feedback Loop: The instructor again used enhanced answer keys with hints to help
with the thought process behind the problem, which received positive feedback from
students. He also improved the sections on radiation and heat exchangers.
3. Closed Feedback Loop: The instructor continued outreach for K-12 teachers and students,
with more than the 900 students impacted during engineering week, which was highlighted
on local television.
4. Feedback Loop: The instructor took several steps to improve the students’ grasp of
radiative heat transfer, including additional homework, more practice problems,
streamlining the lecture and notes, and adding a video demo on view factors. The selfassessed proficiency of the students increased to 96% from 87% previously. The instructor
would again like to track this next year. Responsible Faculty: 376 instructor.
5. Feedback Loop: The instructor continued to focus on heat exchanger calculations to better
prepare students, improving the lecture notes, implementing homework problems showing
the equivalency between the LMTD and the effectiveness-NTU methods, giving both
equations and charts for the F factor and LMTD method, and providing extra practice
problems. In response, 100% of students assessed themselves as proficient in the 3
competencies in which previously only 87% (10.2.1/3), 94% (10.2.1/2), and 96% (10.2.2)
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felt proficient. The instructor would again like to track this next year. Responsible
Faculty: 376 instructor.
6. Closed Feedback Loop: The instructor improved the Leadership Feedback Program by
compiling student responses into a searchable Word document and intends to use the online
system next semester. He also met with appropriate College leaders to explore the potential
for an improved online system.
7. The instructor recommends switching to the new (7th) edition of the textbook. Responsible
Faculty: 376 instructor.
8. Student proficiency in only 3 competencies was self-assessed at <95%: 3.5.3 (91%,
“Students will be able to solve simple problems where heat and mass transfer are coupled.”),
3.4.5 (93%, “Students will be able to formulate and solve differential energy balances for
conduction within a single phase.”), and 3.4.4 (94%, “Students will understand heat/mass
transfer analogies including their limitations.”). While these are level 2 competencies, the
instructor recommends focusing on these areas during reviews and explaining the
competency meaning when doing these problems to avoid any misunderstanding.
Responsible Faculty: 376 instructor. (The UG Committee commends your thoroughness.
Carry on.)
ChEn 386:
1. Recommended competency change: combine 3.6.6 (“Students will understand the effects
of mass and heat transfer, particularly pore diffusion, on heterogeneous catalytic systems.”)
and 3.6.7 (“Students will be exposed to the fundamentals of heterogeneous catalytic, and
non-catalytic systems including potentially limiting mass-transfer and reaction
resistances.”). Please draft the recommended wording. Responsible Faculty: 386
instructor.
ChEn 391:
1. Ongoing Feedback Loop: The UG Committee is currently considering creation of a
sophomore level course (ChEn 291) to address several of the criticisms of this class
(including too late coverage of resumes, streamlining the oral presentation practice, and the
industrial speaker and plant trips, which could be done elsewhere like the college lecture
requirement and AIChE). All x91 classes are being considered. Responsible Faculty:
Undergraduate Committee.
2. One instructor recommends P/F grading, or if graded, to include more grades to motivate the
students. The UG Committee does not recommend this change. In the past, this had been a
P/F class, but was changed to increase student motivation and engagement, which appeared
to work. However, individual instructors are welcome to adjust the weighting of scores and
rubrics for evaluation to suit their teaching preferences.
ChEn 451:
1. The instructor noted improvements in the students’ experience with process simulators this
year and plans to develop some Camtasia teaching videos to further enhance their learning.
ChEn 477:
1. Ongoing Feedback Loop: The UG Committee continues to work to address several
criticisms of this class (experiment quality/appropriateness, statistics integration, writing
amounts and format, and hands-on experience). Most of the effort so far has been focused
on improving 475. However, in a step to improve the class, one instructor prepared 14
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instructional videos on a variety of topics (e.g., equipment operating procedures, statistical
analysis, and dynamic parameter estimation.) Responsible Faculty: UG Committee, 475
and 477 instructors, Mike Beliveau.
One instructor recommends the problem statements be updated to include the current date.
Please do. Responsible Faculty: 477 instructors, Mike Beliveau.
One instructor worked to improve student performance on competency 4.3 (“Students will
be able to use the scientific method and problem solving strategies, as well as statistical
methods, to design, carry out, and analyze experiments in order to solve engineering
problems.”) by including a lecture on nonlinear statistical analysis and dynamic data
analysis. Responsible Faculty: 477 instructors to decide whether to implement.
One instructor recommends providing more instruction on statistical design of experiments,
with at least one project designed to permit use of factorial design. Responsible Faculty:
477 instructors to decide whether to implement.
One instructor recommends that the individual written report should not be weighted as
heavily as it currently is. Responsible Faculty: 477 instructors to decide whether to
implement.
One instructor recommends increasing the amount of time given for literature reviews, as he
felt that students’ performance on competencies 12.8 (“Students will demonstrate effective
reading of technical material.”) and 6.5 (“Students will be able to obtain and evaluate
appropriate informational/data from databases, hand books, correlations, experiments,
literature, etc.”) was weak. Responsible Faculty: 477 instructors to decide whether to
implement.