A Curricular Review Process For Systematic Continuous Improvement

This paper describes a novel process for curriculum planning, assessment, and improvement. The process is quantitative but allows faculty freedom to innovate. The review process is sufficiently flexible that it can be applied to many engineering programs. The curricular review process is split into cycles corresponding to the various programmatic levels, i.e., validating courses, assessing outcomes, appraising attributes, and evaluating objectives, each with its own review cycle period. The review process provides a formal way of closing the feedback loops at all programmatic levels from the course level to the objective level. The review results are easily documented and can be used to ensure continuous improvement. Results are tabulated in three systems of matrices. Importance matrices are used to show the relative importance of goals at each programmatic level. Measurement matrices document the level of performance at each programmatic level relative to a set of benchmarks. Correlation matrices are used to correlate the goals from one programmatic level to the next. While other assessment methods may use something similar to our measurement matrices, the use of correlation matrices is unique to this curricular review process. The correlation matrices are used to see if the goals of each level are correct. The matrices are used in the corrective action process to adjust the relative importance of goals and to insert or delete possible new goals. Examples of implementation of the curricular review process are provided.