Continuous Improvement of the Assessment and Measurement Process for Engineering Education Article Swipe

Assessment and measurement techniques for compliance with ABET EC-2000 criteria must be developed and implemented early in the accreditation cycle to facilitate adequate engineering program reporting, i.e., sufficient quantity and quality of the "correct" type of data for verification of desired program outcomes.Many engineering departments have for years been "doing it the old way," i.e., essentially conducting informal qualitative assessments by talking to employers, alumni, students and others interacting with the educational process.However, this data was for the most part not properly documented, and often the instruments of measurement were not clearly defined and certainly not used in an optimal fashion.To properly satisfy EC-2000 criteria, an indepth review of each program's mission and program educational objectives is required at the outset, which then results in a set of program outcomes selected to measure the viability of the program.Once program outcomes are defined, an assessment and measurements process can be developed to measure the degree of achievement of these outcomes.Beginning with the constituents of a program (clients, supporters, and other individuals or organizations interacting with the department administering the program) and their relationship to its academic "implementers," and operating within university policies and constraints, the process provides a means for verification of the desired outcomes, and, properly integrated with the decision-making process of the organization, serves as a measure of the milestones of achievement critical to achieving the desired outcomes.An optimal set of assessment tools for a given program is selected; these instruments then facilitate the gathering of data on a periodic basis, after which this data is recycled into the assessment process.A triple-feedback mechanism provides for continuous monitoring of progress toward predetermined programmatic milestones with checks at regular intervals so that measurement instruments can be kept up-to-date, and desired program outcomes and program objectives can be revised or modified if needed.Based on these periodic re-assessments, implementation procedures and the curriculum proper can be changed as needed to keep program outcomes relevant to the mission of the organization and its program objectives, and to assure that the outcomes are successfully achieved by all students who successfully complete the program.