ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF TESTING FREQUENCY ON STUDENT PERFORMANCE IN A BASIC THERMODYNAMICS COURSE

Many engineering courses, such as Thermodynamics, have topics which build upon the material previously learned in the course. For example, students will have difficulty learning the Second Law of Thermodynamics if they have not mastered the First Law. Unfortunately, many students delay studying material in courses until an exam is drawing near. This can be a particular problem in a course which does not inherently interest a student, such as a non-Mechanical Engineering student required to take Thermodynamics as a course outside their major. As a result, they may find themselves well behind in a course and struggling with the material currently being taught because they had not spent enough time learning earlier material while it was being covered in class. One technique which has been used to motivate students to learn the course material promptly is to test students more frequently, rather than waiting a month or more to do so. The author used this more-frequent-testing technique for many years, using shorter (30-45 minute) quizzes every 2 to 3 weeks in a Basic Thermodynamics course. Before using this method, the author had used a more traditional approach of giving the students 2 mid-term exams during the semester. While the frequent-quiz technique generally received positive feedback from the students and appeared to aid in their learning of the material, the two techniques had not been directly compared to quantifiably measure their relative impact. In the Fall 2011 semester, the author taught two sections of Basic Thermodynamics, and used the frequent-quiz technique in one and the 2 mid-term exam technique in the other. Other than the testing frequency, the two sections were kept as similar as possible. The lecture content and homework assignments were identical. Results of the final exam in the course were used to judge which technique was more successful in aiding the students' learning. Yet to be determined is the impact of each technique on student retention of the material in a second Thermodynamics course. In this paper, a thorough discussion of the study methodology and results is presented. A discussion of the benefits and detriments of both techniques is provided, and recommendations for teachers on testing frequency in Thermodynamics courses are made.