Engineering student self-assessment through confidence-based scoring

Abstract

A vital aspect of an answer is the confidence that goes along with it. Misstating the level of confidence one has in the answer can have devastating outcomes. However, confidence assessment is rarely emphasized during typical engineering education. The confidence-based scoring method described in this study encourages students to both think about their answers in a different way and to evaluate their confidence in the answer. Each answer is scored based on whether the answer is right or wrong and whether the student is confident or not in that answer. Students generally appreciated the educational value as it made them more self-aware of their understanding. Overall, students were able to accurately assess whether their answer was right or wrong 77% of the time. Average self-assessment generally improved over time, but the degree of improvement varies based on student segments. The method also benefits instructors by indicating the topics that students tend to be less certain of, even if the students are getting the right answers, and identifies students that are either over or under confident.