Open AccessRUBRICS FOR ACCREDITATION AND OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT IN ENGINEERING CAPSTONE PROJECTS
Author(s) -
William Bishop,
Oscar Nespoli,
Wayne Parker
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
proceedings of the ... ceea conference
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2371-5243
DOI - 10.24908/pceea.v0i0.4619
Subject(s) - rubric , capstone , accreditation , peer assessment , set (abstract data type) , engineering management , engineering education , work (physics) , engineering , computer science , mathematics education , engineering ethics , medical education , psychology , mechanical engineering , medicine , algorithm , programming language
Capstone projects offer an excellent oppor- tunity to assess the attributes of engineering students in their final year of studies. For the purposes of accredi- tation and outcomes assessment, capstone projects can be used to establish that engineering students have ob- tained a suitable level of mastery of the skills necessary to be successful in their field of study. At the University of Waterloo, a committee was formed by the Faculty of Engineering to investigate, develop, and implement a common set of rubrics for the purpose of consistently assessing graduate attributes across all engineering disciplines. Faculty members from every engineering discipline were appointed to the committee. Using the collective experience of the committee members, a set of rubrics for outcomes assessment was established. This paper examines the design of the six rubrics that the committee deemed to be equally applicable to all engineering disciplines. These rubrics assess the CEAB graduate attributes of problem analysis, design, individual and team work, communication skills, and economics and project management. Each rubric subdivides the assessment of an attribute into a set of elements that are examined independently. This paper presents the rubrics, examines the elements of each CEAB graduate attribute, and examines the expected level of mastery associated with each assessment level. This paper concludes with a discussion of the recent use of the rubrics in the assessment of capstone projects in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.