An engineering economy concept inventory

Abstract

There has been considerable recent emphasis on valid assessment of learning in engineering education. When new teaching pedagogies are introduced, it can be very challenging to demonstrate increases in learning of course concepts. While there are a number of accepted concept inventories available for some engineering topics (statics and dynamics, heat and energy, signals and systems, and statistics), reliable and valid tools for assessing learning are not readily available for many curriculum areas, including engineering economy. This paper discusses the reliability and validity of the Engineering Economy Concept Inventory (EECI) that can be used to assess learning in any introductory engineering economy course. Development of the EECI began in 2009 for use in assessing the effectiveness of model-eliciting activities in the classroom and has since been revised and reformulated a number of times. In the fall of 2018, the EECI was administered at multiple institutions for further evaluation of its validity and results from these groups of students are presented. The paper concludes with remarks regarding the reliability and validity of the instrument and recommendations for its use as a tool to assess knowledge in engineering economy.

Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges Professor Kellie S. Grasman of the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology and Professor Tish Pohl of the Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas for administering the EECI to their students and providing data for this research.

Notes

1 ABET is the organization that accredits college and university programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering and engineering technology.

Additional information

Funding

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Pittsburgh as an exempt study, IRB PRO18080574.

Notes on contributors

Karen M. Bursic

Karen M. Bursic, Ph.D., P.E, is an Associate Professor and the Undergraduate Program Director in Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to joining the department she worked as a Senior Consultant for Ernst and Young and as an Industrial Engineer for General Motors Corporation. She teaches courses in engineering economics and engineering management in Industrial Engineering as well as engineering analysis and computing in the First Year Engineering program. Dr. Bursic’s recent research has focused on improving Engineering Education and she has 25 years of experience in this area. She has also done research and published work in the areas of Engineering and Project Management. Dr. Bursic is a senior member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers and the American Society for Engineering Education and a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Pennsylvania.