Using GEARSET to Promote Student Awareness of Learning Objectives

In fall 2009, several new grade reporting modules were added to GEO (General Engineering Online), a web based class management tool developed at Clemson University for use with large enrollment freshman engineering courses. The dynamic grade report module provided a live record of attendance and course grades, capabilities for feedback on assignments from instructors to students, and performance predictions to give students perspective on the grades necessary to earn a particular final grade in the course. The implementation of this module led to significant improvements on student evaluation of all instructors using GEO, specifically on questions regarding student satisfaction with being informed of their progress throughout the course. These observations lead to our desire to implement new modules in GEO to further improve student satisfaction and engagement in academic material. Some of the most troubling comments on our instructor evaluations were related to students` perception of a disconnect between the learning activities and the learning objectives. One of the many purposes of writing learning objectives is to establish expectations of content and performance between students and instructors. To address this, we developed a new module called GEARSET (General Engineering Assessment Record Self Evaluation Tool) with the intent to bridge the gap between student understanding of the relationship between learning activities and the course learning objectives. Functionally, GEARSET allows students to track their own progress of the required and recommended elements of study for a course. In addition, GEARSET displays daily, unit and overall course learning objectives in an interface that allows the student to self-evaluate their understanding by. checking off. their progress. For the instructor, GEARSET allows tracking of assignment completion and self-evaluation of learning objectives. This paper gives an overview of GEARSET, discusses the integration within first year engineering courses, addresses how it can be used by students as a tool for self-evaluation, and how use of GEARSET by instructors provides greater insight into student progress.