Involving industry in the assessment process: preliminary findings

Industry is an important partner and stakeholder in engineering education. Input and feedback from various stakeholders, such as industry, has become an important ingredient for effective assessment and continuous improvement programs. Universities are challenged to find ways to solicit and integrate industrial input throughout the assessment process, from planning to the evaluation of results. The NSF sponsored Coalitions for Engineering Education (Academy, Ecsel, Foundation, Gateway, Greenfield, SUCCEED, and Synthesis) have engaged industry both at the coalition and institutional level. This paper describes the preliminary results from 15 of the coalition schools, which is part of a larger study of the levels of industry and faculty involvement in planning and implementing assessment in coalition schools.