How to Measure Students' Individual Performance in Active-Learning Environments: A Case-Study

Facing enormous global challenges, we are now in the transforming age where shifts are expected in the way we learn, live and work [1]. This puts a high emphasis on education, creating an increasing demand for new ways of teaching. Students are no longer merely passive vessels of knowledge but are asked to actively engage in their learning process. They participate more, applying, analyzing, evaluating and criticizing information, instead of just memorizing it. Moreover, a special focus is also put on the development of soft skills, namely social skills, communication skills, career attributes, emotional and social intelligence. All of these are traits of active-learning methodologies, which were popularized by Bonwell and Eison in 1991. These new teaching frameworks have started the debate on how to effectively assess students' performance individually and in group [5], [6]. In this work, we provide a case-studies assessment tool for a curricular unit (CU) of a Bachelor Engineering Degree of the School of Engineering of the Polytechnic of Porto. In this CU, called System's Lab, students work in groups to develop innovative products, recurring to multidisciplinary approaches in the area of business. Students have to propose an idea, construct a business model, a financial plan, develop an application and present their products in a Pitch format. Students are evaluated by four professors from different backgrounds, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering and Management, and by their peers. Students' assessment is then achieved by grading several parameters, from communication and time management, presentation quality, business model, demo, logbooks, and exams. This new assessment tool, Tool to Assess students in Lab Courses (TALC), has provided a way to evaluate students which has, in our opinion, reduced the bias, without increasingly the burden in evaluation.