2C (Crossword, Concept Map): A Formattive Assessment Approach to Engage Interdisciplinary Program Students in Wireless Communication Course

Formative assessment is an exercise meant to enrich teaching-learning process. These methods are used to conduct in-process evaluations of student understanding, learning needs, and academic growth during a course. Formative assessments in engineering course are mostly implemented as assignments, multiple choice question, tests etc. Such methods are not engaging, motivating and does not give instant feedback to teachers to make necessary adjustments to modules and delivery techniques, and academic support. Wireless communication is one of the core telecommunication course which consists of students from computer science, mechanical and electronics engineering. In this course we have implemented two techniques: i) crossword puzzle, ii) concept maps in classroom. In this paper, we report the usage of these two methods as formative assessment techniques as we believe that they can evoke high level of engagement, recall, and retention. Though we have not yet conducted controlled studies for effectiveness evaluation of these formative assessment techniques, feedback response from student's reveals that 78% find the techniques engaging.