The CAPA Project

What are performance assessments?

Multiple-choice tests typically depend on memorization and step-by-step questions to probe a student's understanding of complex processes. Assessing the hands-on abilities of a student or prospective employee is best done with real, and often costly, performance assessments. What if a computer program could simulate such assessments and even objectively assign a grade? [More…]

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New Digital Circuit Troubleshooting assessment has been added. [More…]

What’s new?

We are presenting at the SAME TEC conference in Austin, TX on July 31, 2008. [More…]

The CAPA project recently published an article on our first findings with test students. [More…]

About the CAPA project

In May, 2006, we embarked on an exciting three-year project to demonstrate the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of computer-assisted performance assessment for evaluating students’ knowledge and abilities in advanced technological education. With the support of the Advanced Technological Education Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF Award 0603389), we have developed the first of a planned series of performance assessments of students’ understanding of key topics in introductory electronics, focusing on their ability to use and interpret readings from two common instruments: the oscilloscope and the digital multimeter. These two assessments (Using a Multimeter and Using an Oscilliscope) challenge students to make a measurement and monitor the steps they take as well as the answers they give. This data is analyzed in real time and a numeric grade is computed. The rubric involved in this computation is available to, and may be modified by, the teacher. [More…]