Self‐Assessment to Improve Mechanical Design Understanding

ABSTRACT The primary responsibility of a mechanical engineer is to solve technical problems. This task requires not only comprehensive fundamental knowledge but also requires strong methodical competencies. In addition, heuristic skills are essential. Spatial thinking and design comprehension are equally important. Exercises, projects, and design tasks are used for instruction. They are also used for assessment. These activities evaluate the ability to solve technical problems through design. Their goal is to promote creative solution development. However, online teaching presents significant challenges for these instructional approaches. Numerous reports demonstrate these difficulties. At the start of an international master's program in engineering, a pre‐course was introduced. The pre‐course was developed by the Institute for Machine Elements, Design and Manufacturing of Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg to assess fundamental knowledge. It allows students to perform a thematically structured self‐assessment. The self‐assessment is conducted using the ONYX test platform. It also evaluates spatial thinking and design comprehension. Before the master's program begins, participants can identify existing knowledge gaps and address these gaps in specific subject areas. This process is supported by a dedicated knowledge repository. Automatic feedback is also provided. This approach improves the efficiency of in‐class teaching time. It allows instructors to focus on core course content. This paper describes the structure of the self‐assessment and the types of tasks used. Also, the approach to teaching and assessing design comprehension in a virtual environment is addressed. In addition, various instructional methodologies are discussed. The results of their application in online teaching are presented.