Practical work and assessment to stimulate students' participation and motivation in fluid transport issues

Abstract

Academic education comprises developing new teaching and learning tools, regulating the assessment methodologies, and adjusting the learning programs to the professional activities. Technology developments allow teachers to explore new ways of teaching as well as to adjust new ways of assessing students' performance, giving to students a relevant feedback on their learning. Following this trend, a case study on Fluid Transport Systems in the Chemical Engineering course is presented. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the impact of different assessment methodologies in the final students' grades, to evaluate students' perceptions regarding these changes, and to know which teaching/learning methodologies are most effective. The study allows concluding that students prefer the traditional teaching/learning methodology and consider more beneficial for their learning the assessment through several questions/problems and small tests during the theoretical lessons instead of carrying out a single moment of evaluation and test. The majority of students were able to identify that the development of the practical work (PW) and several moments of assessment help in providing knowledge to the area under study, encourage their collaborative work and stimulate their intellectual curiosity.