PhysPort Assessments: Electricity and Magnetism Conceptual Assessment

Assessments »Electricity and Magnetism Conceptual Assessment

Electricity and Magnetism Conceptual Assessment (EMCA)

Developed by Darren L. Broder, Michele W. McColgan, and Rose A. Finn

Purpose	To assess basic concepts in introductory E&M courses.
Format	Pre/post, Multiple-choice
Duration	45 min
Focus	Electricity / Magnetism Content knowledge (electrostatics, electric fields and force, circuits, magnetism, induction)
Level	Intro college

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Examples
Resources
Scoring
Research
Translations
Versions

Examples

Sample questions from the EMCA:

Resources

EMCA Implementation and Troubleshooting Guide

Everything you need to know about implementing the EMCA in your class.

M. McColgan, R. Finn, D. Broder, and G. Hassel, Assessing students’ conceptual knowledge of electricity and magnetism, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 13 (020121), (2017).

Research

RESEARCH VALIDATION
more details

Bronze Validation
This is the third highest level of research validation, corresponding to at least 3 of the validation categories below.

Research Validation Summary

Based on Research Into:

Student thinking

Studied Using:

Student interviews
Expert review
Appropriate statistical analysis

Research Conducted:

At multiple institutions
By multiple research groups
Peer-reviewed publication

The multiple-choice questions on the EMCA were developed by a group of five faculty members based on their experience teaching the relevant topics. The EMCA was given to over 200 algebra-based and calculus-based second-semester introductory physics students, and appropriate statistical analyses of reliability, difficulty and discrimination were conducted. Reasonable values were found. Scores for men and women were similar.

References

M. McColgan, R. Finn, D. Broder, and G. Hassel, Assessing students’ conceptual knowledge of electricity and magnetism, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 13 (020121), (2017).

Translations

PhysPort provides translations of assessments as a service to our users, but does not endorse the accuracy or validity of translations. Assessments validated for one language and culture may not be valid for other languages and cultures.

Language	Translator(s)
Indonesian	Riska Meikana Br Ginting, Syuhendri, and Nely Andriani

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Scoring

Score the EMCA on the PhysPort Data Explorer

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Typical Results

Average scores and standard deviation for pretest, post-test, and normalized gain in introductory electromagnetism courses at Sienna College and George Washington University (GWU). The Sienna College algebra-based course has an emphasis on topics relevant to life sciences and is "taught in a traditional lecture style interspersed with students completing preassigned problems on the board during class." The Sienna College calculus-based course is taught with "a mix of short lectures frequently interspersed with think-pair-share questions and other mini problems." The GWU course is taught using a SCALE-UP model. From McColgan et al. 2017.

Course type	n	Pretest	SD	Post-test	SD	Normalized gain	SD
Siena calculus-based	105	10.5	3.7	17.1	5.1	0.342	0.242
Siena algebra-based	120	10.1	4.4	12.7	5.1	0.126	0.228
Siena all	225	10.3	4.1	14.7	5.6	0.224	0.258
GWU algebra-based	130	11.5	3.5	17.4	4.8	0.309	0.256