Engineering Programs Evaluation: KFUPM Experience

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Engineering Programs Evaluation KFUPM Experience
Dr. Samir
Al-Baiyat Dean College of Engineering
Sciences and Acting Dean College of Applied
Engineering King Fahd University of
Petroleum Minerals
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Outline

• Background
• History of Assessment and Accreditation
• Accreditation
• Assessment
• Conclusions

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Background

• The Colleges of Engineering Sciences and Applied
  Engineering were established in 1387 H (1966).

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Background

• There are six departments in the colleges . These
  are
• Aerospace Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering,
• Electrical Engineering ,
• Mechanical Engineering,
• Petroleum Engineering.

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Background

• Each department offers two programs one in
  Engineering Science and the other in Applied
  Engineering.
• The colleges have 164 Professorial rank faculty
  members

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• Current Students Enrollment (2003-2004)
• AE 71
• CHE 338
• CE 130
• EE 1071
• ME 771
• PETE 217

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• History of Assessment and Accreditation for the
  Colleges of Engineering
• KFUPM for its Quest for Excellence opted for
  independent Assessment for its programs since its
  establishment.
• In the early years KFUPM was associated with a
  Consortium( international body from USA
  universities) for its programs assessment.

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• In the early nineties ,the Colleges of
  Engineering sought international accreditation by
  Accreditation Board for Engineering Technology
  (ABET).
• Both Engineering Programs (ES AE) are ABET
  Accredited (1993 and 2002).
• Currently the Electrical and Mechanical
  Engineering Programs are going for
  Self-Assessment.

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What is accreditation?

• External review
• Assessment of higher education institutions
  and/or programs
• For quality assurance and continuous improvement

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Accreditation Objectives

• To meet national needs for well-educated
  engineers
• To provide global recognition for professionals
  in the field
• To enable international recognition of the
  credentials of professionals

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Accreditation Objectives (Cont.)

• To assure that graduates are adequately prepared
  to enter and continue the practice of
  engineering and applied sciences
• To serve the public, industry and the
  professional by stimulating the development
  of improved engineering education
• To assist in the development of educational
  models for the establishment of new programs

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Substantial Equivalency Evaluation

• The engineering programs at KFUPM opted twice
  (1993 and 2001) for accreditations by ABET.
• Programs being accredited include
• College of Engineering Sciences Programs
• College of Applied Engineering Programs
• College of Computer Science and Engineering
  Programs
• College of Environmental Design Programs.

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Substantial Equivalency Evaluation

• The evaluation of a program by ABET includes
  assessment of both qualitative as well as
  quantitative factors in the process leading to an
  accreditation decision. This requires
• Self-Study Report
• On-site Visit

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ABET MAJOR FINDINGS

• KFUPM engineering programs are of high quality,
  offered by a highly enthusiastic faculty,
  and supported with outstanding facilities.
  The students are well qualified, and
  anxious to learn, loyal to the
  institution, highly motivated articulate,
  and career-oriented.
• All of the programs were judged to
  satisfy the ABET Engineering Accreditation
  Criteria and appropriate program criteria,
  and they were judged to be substantially
  equivalent to accredited programs of similar
  titles in the United States.

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ABET MAJOR FINDINGS

• KFUPM has excellent classrooms, laboratory and
  administrative facilities. Those programs that
  have experienced rapid growth in the recent past
  are bit short of offices and classrooms spaces.
• The university library provides a rich variety
  of on-sight, on-line research retrieval tools.
• An excellent computing infrastructure is provided
  by the Information Technology Center. The
  external connection to the internet is limited to
  512 kbits/seconds. As Internet usage grows the
  University may wish to consider upgrading this
  connection.

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ABET MAJOR FINDINGS

• The new Academic Development Center (ADC) is
  beginning to provide useful services to the
  teaching faculty. The role of the ADC will
  become even more important as university prepares
  for the next ABET visit which will be conducted
  under criteria 2000.
• The university must ensure that it offers a total
  compensation package to faculty members that is
  competitive with other institutions in the Middle
  East.
• The College of Engineering has established an
  advisory council at the college level. It would
  be important to move the advisory council
  activity to the program level.
• All students have the major design experience.
  University is urged to ensure that every co-op
  student has such an experience.

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ABET ACCREDITATION (Cont.)
IMPLEMENTATION

• Having written set of objectives for each
  program.
• Developing of assessment procedures that
  demonstrate the achievement of the objectives.
• Formation of departments industrial advisory
  committees.
• Revision of the professional rank faculty
  members distribution in some departments.

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ABET ACCREDITATION (Cont.)
IMPLEMENTATION (Cont.)

• Introduction of new course.
• Strengthen the Design Components in all program.
• Having written vision and mission for departments
  and colleges and post them in web pages.

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Assessment
Assessment is a systematic process of gathering,
reviewing and using important quantitative and
qualitative data and information from multiple
and diverse sources about educational programs,
for the purpose of improving student learning,
and evaluating whether academic and learning
standards are being met.
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Self Assessment

• Self assessment is an assessment conducted by
  the institution to assess whether programs meet
  their educational objectives and outcomes with
  the purpose to improve programs quality and
  enhancing students learning.

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• The Elements of a Successful Assessment
• Purpose identification
• Outcomes identification
• Measurements and evaluation design
• Data collection
• Analysis and evaluation
• Decision-making regarding actions to be
  taken.

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• Self Assessment Need
• To be proactive than reactive.
• Initiate improvements to achieve academic
  excellence.
• Systematize the process of self assessment.
• To be current and take a leadership role in
  the region.

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• To Meet Accreditation Bodies Requirements
• At the core of ABET Engineering criteria
  2000 is an outcome assessment component that
  requires each engineering program seeking
  accreditation or re-accreditation to
  establish its own internal assessment process
  which in turn will be assessed by ABET. (ABET
  2000, Huband, 2001)

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• Current Practice who is doing it?
• According to Campus Trends data, (1995), 94
  percent of institutions in the United States
  had assessment activities under way and 90
  percent had increased their activities
  compared to five years ago. Rather than
  depending on nationally available assessment
  instruments, most institutions (86 percent)
  reported using local measures and nearly 70
  percent were developing their own portfolios
  (El-khwas, 1995, Palomba and Banta 1999).

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• Objectives of KFUPM Self Assessment
• Improve and maintain academic standards
• Enhance students learning.
• Verify that the existing programs meet their
  objectives and institutional goals.
• Provide feedback for quality assurance of
  academic programs.

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Assessment Model
Input
Output
Faculty
Curriculum
Laboratories computing Facilities
Processing Delivery
Graduates that Perform Outcomes that Achieve
Educational Objectives
Processes
Institutional Facilities
Assessment/Feedback
Institutional Support
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• Component of the Internal Assessment Process
• Criteria Eight Criteria for Self Assessment.
• Procedure Specifies the process of
  Initiating, conducting, and implementing the
  assessment.

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• Criteria
• Each criterion has an intent A statement of
  requirements to be met.
• Each criterion has several standards They
  describe how the intents are minimally met.

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• Criteria and Standards
• Program Mission, Objectives and Outcomes (3
  standards).
• Curriculum design and Organization (6).
• Laboratories and Computing Facilities (2)
• Student Support and guidance (3).

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• Criteria and Standards
• Process Control (5)
• Faculty (2)
• Institutional Facilities (2)
• Institutional Support (3)

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• Criterion 1 Program Mission,
• Objectives and Outcomes
• Intent Each program must have a mission,
  quantifiable measurable objectives and expected
  outcomes for graduates. Outcomes include
  competency and tasks graduates are expected
  to perform after completing the program. A
  strategic plan must be in place to achieve
  the program objectives. The extent to which
  these objectives are achieved through continuous
  assessment and improvements must be
  demonstrated.

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• Criterion 1 Standards
• Standard 1-1 The program must have
  documented measurable objectives that support
  college and institution mission statements.

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• Meeting Standard 1-1
• Document institution, college and program
  mission statements.
• State program objectives.
• Describe how each objective is aligned with
  program, college and institution mission
  statements.
• Outline the main elements of the strategic
  plan to achieve the program mission and
  objectives.
• Provide for each objective how it was
  measured, when it was measured and
  improvements identified and made.

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• Criterion 1 Standards
• Standard 1-2 The program must have
  documented outcomes for graduating students.
  It must be demonstrated that the outcomes
  support the program objectives and that
  graduating students are capable of performing
  these outcomes.

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• Meeting standard 1-2
• Describe the means for assessing the extent to
  which graduates are performing the stated program
  outcomes/learning objectives.
• 1. Conducting a survey of graduating seniors
  every semester.
• 2. Conduct a survey of alumni every two years.
• 3. Conduct a survey of employers every two
  years.

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Meeting standard 1-2 1. Carefully designed
questions asked during co-op and capstone design
projects presentations. 2. Outcome assessment
exams.
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• Criterion 1 Standards
• Standard 1-3 The results of programs
  assessment and the extent to which they are used
  to improve the program must be documented.

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• Meeting Standard 1-3
• Describe the actions taken based on the results
  of periodic assessments.
• Describe major future program improvements plans
  based on recent assessments.

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• Criterion 6 Faculty
• Intent Faculty members must be current and
  active in their discipline and have the necessary
  technical depth and breadth to support the
  program. There must be enough faculty members to
  provide continuity and stability, to cover the
  curriculum adequately and effectively, and to
  allow for scholarly activities. To meet this
  criterion the standards in this section must be
  satisfied.

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• Standard 6-1
• There must be enough full time faculty who are
  committed to the program to provide adequate
  coverage of the program areas/courses, continuity
  and stability. The interests and qualifications
  of all faculty members must be sufficient to
  teach all courses, plan, modify and update
  courses and curricula. All faculty members must
  have a level of competence that would normally be
  obtained through graduate work in the discipline.
  The majority of the faculty must hold a Ph.d. in
  the discipline.

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Program areas Courses in the area and average number of sections per year Number of faculty members in each area Number of faculty with Ph.D.
Area 1
Area 2
Area 3
Area 4
Total
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• Standard 6-2
• All faculty members must remain current in the
  discipline and sufficient time must be provided
  for scholarly activities and professional
  development. Also, effective programs for
  faculty development must be in place.

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• Meeting Standard 6-2
• State criteria for faculty to be deemed current
  in the discipline and, based on theses criteria
  and information in the faculty members resumes,
  what percentage of the faculty members are
  current. The criteria should be developed by the
  department.
• Describe the means for ensuring that full time
  faculty members have sufficient time for
  scholarly and professional development.

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• Meeting Standard 6-2
• Describe existing faculty development programs at
  the departmental and programs at the departmental
  and university level. Demonstrate their
  effectiveness in achieving faculty development.
• Indicate how frequently faculty programs are
  evaluated and if the evaluation results are used
  for improvement.

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INTERNAL ASSESSMENT PROCEDURE
ADC initiates IA one semester prior to
the Assessment through the college dean
Department forms PT that will be Responsible for
preparing SAR
ADC reviews the Documentation with one month
Is SAR SI Complete
VRAA forms AT in consultation with the dean based
on the recommendations of ADC
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ADC plans and fixes AT visit
AT conducts assessment and presents its
findings To VRAA, Dean, ADC, PT and dept. faculty
VRAA submits an executive summary to H.E. the
Rector
Department prepares implementation plan. As in
Table A.2
Follow-up of the implementation plan by ADC
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Concluding Remarks

• The self-assessment and accreditation experiences
  were essential and very valuable to maintain a
  world class quality Engineering Programs.
• Each engineering college should develop an
  appropriate assessment program using the ABET
  Engineering Criteria 2000 or others in
  conjunction with criteria specific to the
  individual college and program goals. 

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• The faculty of individual engineering colleges
  should be actively involved in the development
  and implementation stages.
• The departments industrial advisory committee
  provided invaluable guidance and support to the
  engineering programs.
• The development of a nationally formed (standard)
  examination as a measure of engineering programs
  learning outcomes assessment is called for.

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ACCREDITATION
Recognition of the awarded degrees by
international Bodies. Students potential
in transferring to other institutions.
Graduates being admitted to graduate programs
in other international institutions.
Increase the graduates potentials in job market
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ABET ACCREDITATION (Cont.)
GRADUATE CHARECTERISTICS

• A strong foundation in basic sciences,
  mathematics and engineering fundamentals.
• A capacity to apply these fundamentals to a
  variety of problems.
• Knowledge and experience in experimental methods.
• Knowledge and skills in the fundamentals of
  engineering practice.
• Advanced knowledge of selected professional level
  technologies.

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ABET ACCREDITATION (Cont.)
GRADUATE CHARECTERISTICS

• Strong oral and written communication skills.
• A sense of corporate and business basics.
• A sense of social, ethical, political and human
  responsibility.
• A historical and social perspective of the impact
  of technology.
• A unifying and interdisciplinary broad view.
• A culture for life-long learning and a creative
  and intellectual spirit, a capacity for critical
  judgment and enthusiasm for learning.

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• Current Practice who is doing it?
• A sample of this universities include MIT,
  University of Michigan, University of Illinois
  at Urbana, University of Wisconsin at
  Madison, Texas A M University, University
  of Texas at Austin, Purdue University,
  University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Al Ain
  University at UAE and many others.