Engineering Graphics Concept Inventory: Instrument Development and Item Selection

More reliable instruments need to be developed to assess curricula and measure student learning. It is important to ensure that students properly understand fundamental concepts, as scaffolding learning on a poor foundation can have a negative cascading effect. A concept inventory is an example of an instrument that aims to assess student learning and identifying their misconceptions. Such an instrument is typically comprised of an assessment whose items are prudently chosen to test understanding of a single concept per item. The result of this careful selection of items for the Engineering Graphics Concept Inventory resulted in a 30-question multiple choice instrument that can be used to identify deep-seated misconceptions and to assess course outcomes. This paper will outline the development of the Engineering Graphics Concept Inventory, focusing specifically on developing distractors and the selection process for the items in the instrument. The instrument will provide a means to assess and streamline curricula for engineering graphics educators.