site visit

1
Breakout II ABET Update
David L. Soldan
March 20, 2004
2
Breakout II ABET Update

• David L. Soldan Organizer
• John Orr Training Coordinator Chair- elect,
  IEEE Committee on Engineering Accreditation
  Activities
• Richard Plumb Report on ECEDHA ABET Workshop
• Steve Goodnick Arizona State University

3
Guidelines for Interpreting Criterion 3
David L. Soldan
March 20, 2004
4
Why Guidelines?

• There has been much debate on Criteria 3
• Many questions as to what must be submitted
• Guidelines produced by EAC Executive Committee in
  2003
• Intended for institutions, team chairs, and
  program evaluators

5
Guidelines

• Must have curriculum that provides students
  opportunities to learn, practice, and demonstrate
  the elements listed in (a) (k)
• Must have an assessment process that produces
  documented results that students have achieved
  each and every item listed in (a) (k)
• Assessment process should include direct and
  indirect measures and not rely on self-report
  surveys or evidence that material is covered in
  the curriculum

6
Assessment Process

• Do not need to prove that each and every student
  has demonstrated achievement of (a) (k)
• Must show, even if by appropriate sampling, that
  there is convincing evidence to assume that all
  students have demonstrated achievement of every
  item
• Achievement must be to a level acceptable to the
  program

7
Measures

• Data collection methods are focused on indicators
  and can include such things as
• Student portfolios
• Subject content exams
• Performance evaluation of work/study, internships
  or co-ops
• Performance observations

8
Measures

• Student self-assessment, opinion surveys, and
  course grades are not, by themselves or
  collectively, acceptable methods for documenting
  achievement of outcomes.
• Using course mapping to document student learning
  only documents what is taught, not what is
  learned
• Every outcome does not need to be assessed
  yearly, but must be done systematically

9
Results

• Must have summary of results available that
  reflects evidence of systematic outcomes
  assessment
• Present summaries, evaluation of results and
  action taken on an outcome by outcome basis
• A lot of raw data and tables with no summaries
  generally reflect inadequate evaluation processes

10
Constituents

• Criterion 3 does not require involvement of
  external program constituents in outcomes
  assessment
• Criteria 2b requires program educational
  objectives to be based on the needs of the
  programs constituencies

11
Conclusions

• ABET EAC Executive Committee has provided
  detailed guidelines dealing with Criterion 3
• Documentation of results with evaluation is
  important to the process
• You need to read and understand the table
  presented in the guidelines!

12
Questions??