ABET Engineering Criteria 2000-the evaluator´s perspective

This paper presents a summary of the status of implementation of ABET Engineering Criteria 2000 from the points of view of two program evaluators, drawing from personal experiences. The following aspects are addressed: the evaluators´ approach to the review, content and organization of pre-visit materials, suggestions for changes to the present self-study format, means of evaluation of the various EC 2000 components (goal-setting and improvement process, assessment plan, accomplishment of the EC 2000 criteria, program criteria, etc.), communications between the evaluator and the program faculty before, during, and after the visit. This is more necessary than in the past because EC 2000 represents an interwoven set of educational activities and outcomes, compared to the previous criteria. More challenging is the need to assess and document a broad range of types of student outcomes with some degree of quantification, where this has not been attempted (or even considered) in the past. Also, in the authors´ experience, there is a need to assure a more consistent level of documentation of all of the aspects of EC 2000, rather than focusing on a particular portion.