Three Approaches To Outcomes Assessment: Questionnaires, Protocols, And Empirical Modeling

Engineering is a multi-dimensional discipline. Practicing engineers must possess a variety of knowledge and skills to be successful in the workplace. Now, ABET, through “EAC 2000” has classified these into eleven categories . ABET’s new performance-based criteria require each engineering program’s faculty to clearly enunciate educational objectives in terms of a diverse set of knowledge and skills. Further, the faculty must demonstrate that the program’s graduates are, in fact, acquiring these knowledge and skills, and, where deficiencies exist, they are being corrected. This is a substantial challenge, which requires a comprehensive evaluation system. Clearly, an effective engineering education evaluation program must be multi-faceted, employing an array of methodologies which measure a variety of outcomes, and provide the requisite feedback for making programmatic improvements. We discuss three approaches to outcomes assessment that we are developing and testing. We then describe how these assessment approaches can be integrated into a formal evaluation program. These methods involve questionnaires about attitudes (freshmen and alumni), verbal protocol analysis, and empirical modeling. Each method has different objectives, and therefore serves a different purpose in a well-rounded evaluation program. The advantages and disadvantages of each method, as well as their integration are discussed. Introduction