Empirical Research On Engineering Students’ Learning Outcomes

The expansion of higher education and the shortage of resources put forwards highdemandsfor the higher education quality evaluation system.Universities are in great need ofquality statistics to get more resources, while the public and the governors need them tosupervise. As a result, international higher education quality evaluation pays more attentionto students’ learning outcomesthan input and output. And value-added assessment has takenthe place of summative assessment gradually. As a future engineer, the learning outcomesof engineering undergraduates attract more attention. But such studies are still unpopular inChina.Based on Educational Production Function Theory, Value-added Assessment Theoryand Shouping Hu and George Kuh’s Learning Productivity Theory, this paper aims toexplore the relationship between Student Inputs (eg.Age, grade, gender, parents’ educationlevels, doing further study/hunting jobs, love experience, extra-curricular learning andpart-time jobs), Student Effort, Institutional Characteristics,Value-added Performance andLearning Outcomes. Learning Outcomes are measured by Intellectual Skills, GeneralEducation, Personal/Social Development, Science/Technology, and Practical/VocationalPreparation. We surveyed100undergraduates in SchoolC, University B(four naturalclasses from Grade One to Grade four, one class from each grade)using the revised CollegeStudent Experience Questionnaire and analyzed the data with correlational analysis andregression analysis. The research findings are:(1)Students with love experiences have more gains than others. Girls score higher inPersonal/Social Development than boys. Job-Hunting ones performed better in GeneralEducationthan those planning to do further study. The longer one studies after class, thebetter Intellectual Skills he/she gains.(2) Student Inputs have little effects on students’ Value-added Performance.(3) Students’ Value-added Performance has little relationship with Student Inputs,Student Effort, and Institutional Characteristics.(4) Student Effort, and Institutional Characteristics are positively related to StudentLearning Outcomes and its dimensions.