Assessment Based Instruction Applied to a Course and Lab in Digital Signal Processing

This paper describes three instructional practices in the context of lecture and laboratory courses in Digital Signal Processing. The three concepts are: (1) In the course development process, articulate learning outcomes associated with each section meeting, then develop assessments for each learning outcome prior to developing instructional material for the course, and then, and only then, prepare instructional materials related to the learning outcomes. (First sense of “Assessment First”); (2) Start each section meeting with students completing assessments of the learning outcomes covered in the previous section meeting. (Second sense of “Assessment First”); and (3) Use the large number of assessments to evaluate student performance; i.e., when there are lots of assessments, relative frequency of assessment achievement is an adequate basis for assigning grades.