A Study of the Testing Effect in an Engineering Classroom

This research paper describes a study in which we examined the impact of a testing effect intervention used in an authentic engineering classroom setting. We introduced a system of weekly online quizzes in an engineering course for second-year students. The intervention was introduced to all course participants and was a component of the routine course learning activities throughout the semester. We controlled for individual differences in student motivation and student metacognition in our analysis. Our primary goal was to identify the characteristics of participants for whom low-stakes quizzing positively impacted learning outcomes. The participant characteristics of interest included quiz-taking patterns (score on first quiz attempt and number of quiz attempts before a unit exam), calibration error (measured as the participant’s predicted weekly quiz score minus their actual weekly quiz score), pre-existing academic achievement (measured as grade point average prior to enrolling in the course), and achievement goals (measured with the Achievement Goals Questionnaire). The data collected was analyzed in aggregate and individually. Our findings show that the best indicators of summative unit exam performance are cumulative grade point average prior to taking the course, the score earned on the first attempt of each week's online quiz and the student’s calibration error (student-predicted quiz score minus actual quiz score).