Design of a Tutorial System for the Associate Systems Engineering Professional (ASEP) Exam

Hiring Managers at System Engineering companies have to select engineering candidates that will be value-added to the organization now and in the future and avoid costly bad hires. Interviews with Hiring Managers identified that they use Grade Point Average (GPA), work experience (e.g. internships), and skills (e.g. programming languages) to choose candidates for interview. To reduce their risk, they also use Professional Licenses as a discriminator. For entry-level Systems Engineers, the Associate Systems Engineering Professional (ASEP) certificate offered by INCOSE is the appropriate Professional License. A passing grade is 70% and only 60% of the people taking the exam pass. A tutorial system for students taking the exam is needed to minimize the risk of not passing the exam (i.e. guarantee passing the exam), reducing the time to study for the exam, and to make studying for the exam an enjoyable experience. The Concept-of-Operations for the Tutorial System is to assess student's knowledge with a diagnostic quiz, provide practice quizzes and supplemental materials, and evaluate students' performance with assessment quizzes. The tutorial is self-paced and includes repetition to avoid forgetting. The Tutorial System was implemented in Google Classroom In addition to Google classroom, an application called OwlCamp was created to provide the practice quizzes for the students. The Google Classroom learning management and OwlCamp have undergone verification testing and both satisfy the mission and design requirements. A Validation Test of the Tutorial System was conducted. Seventeen Senior Systems Engineering students were given a Diagnostic Test each week followed by supplemental learning materials, ending with assessment quizzes to test their knowledge. The null hypothesis tested is: “The ASEP Tutorial System will not improve the students’ grade between the diagnostic test and the Assessment quiz Using a 5% level of significance, the data shows that there is indeed a difference between diagnostics and assessments. A 5yearprojection with 10% market penetration for annual market size of 2250 SE students per year, generates cumulative revenue of $675,000. With nonrecurring development and testing cost of $75,205, and recurring maintenance costs of $1281 per year, the 5 year profit is estimated at $3,293,390. The 5 year ROI is 112.95% and the Break-even is in year 1.