Assessment Ideas

For midterm and final assessments, students get to pitch their own ideas for approval. This page contains some ideas, but students are encouraged to get creative and pitch their own ideas.

Students may not complete the same type of assessment twice, except a Mini Capstone Project. For example, if a student chooses to complete a research paper for their midterm, they cannot complete a research paper for their final. Variance in assessments promotes curiosity and active learning.

Parameters

The midterm assessment should evaluate students’ understanding of M1, M2, and M3. It should require critical thought and careful design. When pitching ideas, the following is your prompt: Demonstrate an in-depth understanding of a large breadth of material from M1, M2, and M3, including theoretical concepts and practical applications. The midterm assesment should take 6-10 hours to complete.

The final assessment should evaluate students’ understanding of the entire course, giving priority to M4, M5, and M6. It should require critical thought and careful design. When pitching ideas, the following is your prompt: Demonstrate an in-depth understanding of a large breadth of material from the entire course, including theoretical concepts and practical applications. The final assesment should take 16-20 hours to complete.

Ideas

Mini Capstone Project. Students propose a unique digital circuit that is sufficiently complex to include concepts from the specified modules. This project should not re-use significant amounts of code from labs or homework assignments. The design should have a practical application. Sufficiently complex designs may be completed in small groups. Students submit the a project proposal including a theoretical design specification, Verilog code plus a testbench, a working project demonstration, and a brief experience report.

Research Paper. Students propose a research topic that encompasses concepts from the specified modules. The paper should synthesize academic conference papers and journal articles about the proposed topic. The paper should fill 5-10 pages (excluding references) and include many references, figures, and math to explore sufficient material. The paper should be professionally typeset; a template will be provided.

Educational Video. Students propose a topic for an educational video or series of videos covering topics from the specified modules. Students can work individually or in small groups to produce the video or series. Videos should be sufficiently detailed while remaining engaging. They should include references, figures, and math while giving high-level explanations of concepts. Students are encouraged to upload their videos to a public service like Youtube, Internet Archive, or Wikimedia Commons to promote open access to education.

Reverse Engineering. Students will receive a complex circuit specification (either a Verilog design or circuit diagram) with no comments, descriptive variable names, or other specification. Students are responsible for reverse-engineering the design and writing its theoretical specification, code comments, and descriptive variable names. If students believe the design contains errors, they provide corrections. Students submit the improved design and testbench alongside a detailed report. Available for midterm only.

Pedagogical Lab Kit. Students design a lab exercise to teach concepts from the specified modules. The lab exercise should be suitable for (hypothetical) future course use. Students should prepare lab instructions, starter files, example solutions, grading testbenches or scripts, and a short instructor walkthrough (video recording or script). Materials should be of comparable quality to those used in this course: professional typesetting, documented code, and detailed explanations. Existing lab materials may not be re-used.

In-person Oral Exam. I have prepared a selection of questions to ask in an interview-like exam that is expected to take about an hour. Students should prepare detailed notes and arrive prepared to discuss all specified modules. This could be great practice for a technical interview from a future employer. Students are responsible to schedule the exam, and it may be re-attempted until the student is satisfied with their grade. Additional attempts are likely to include a different selection of questions from previous attempts.

Traditional Take-Home Exam. Against my better judgment, I have prepared traditional take-home exam options. Students will have three days to complete the exam. It is open-book, open-notes, open-course-materials, but closed internet and must be completed individually. The exam will include theoretical as well as practical design questions. Exam scores are final and non-negotiable.