Board 95: Work in Progress: Implementation of Rapid Review as Formative Assessment in a Circuits Course

Many undergraduate electrical engineering programs require a circuit analysis course early in the curriculum. Students must make it through the circuits sequence early on in their undergraduate studies. These students typically have yet to see connections and repetition of ideas and concepts throughout the electrical engineering discipline. A few common struggles have been anecdotally observed: (1) many students deliberate over what method or technique to use for solving a problem, (2) if their initial approach does not result in a successful solution, they find it challenging to see alternative paths, and (3) series and parallel connections of components are often confused. During the pandemic, many faculty were teaching courses virtually, and polls were used in one section of XX#### at [the University] as a formative assessment technique. This assessment provided a quick check of the students' conceptual understanding of recent topics presented in the course. Through these assessment polls, it was noticed that student misconceptions on series and parallel connections of components were reduced throughout the term with repeated exposure to these quick check-in points. After the pandemic, without the online classroom environment, the formative assessment polls were no longer used. Students continued to struggle with foundational circuit analysis concepts or spend a lot of time determining how to start a problem. This triggered the creation of "Rapid Reviews" that are incorporated at the start of most lectures. A Rapid Review is a short conceptual problem, the students are given one minute to consider the problem, and then the faculty member discusses the result with the students. After implementing the Rapid Reviews, there has been increased engagement and fewer of the misconceptions previously mentioned are making their way into homework or exams. In this work-in-progress paper, a literature review of the impact of formative assessments with be presented, followed by details of the Rapid Reviews along with anecdotal data on the effectiveness of their use.