Using Expectancy Value Theory to Explore the Impact of Assessment Characteristics on Student Ownership of Learning

Expectancy-Value Theory is used to understand how assessment characteristics influence student perceptions of challenges and the value that they place on learning. In first-year engineering programs, assessments often evoke diverse responses that can be adaptive or maladaptive, significantly impacting academic progress. Understanding these responses is crucial for developing strategies for student engagement and ownership of learning. A structured-survey methodology involving two surveys to first-year engineering students was used. The first survey ranked assessment priorities based on perceived difficulty and the second survey consisted of hypothetical scenarios containing assessment with diverse characteristics. The overall conclusions consisted with two main takeaways. A higher weighted assessment with a high-cost associated with it, results in low expectancy of success and an adaptive response. A lower-weighted assessment or team-assessment with attainment value associated with it has a high expectancy of success and can potentially lead to maladaptive responses.