Outcomes based assessment of the engineering programs at Qassim University for ABET Accreditation

In this paper, a continuous improvement process was developed and implemented in our engineering programs at College of Engineering, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. The continuous improvement plan was based on an integrated set of strategies aimed at: establishing and implementing a structured process that translates educational objectives into measurable outcomes, and specifies feedback tracks for corrective actions. As a result of setting of direct and indirect measures, the programs can assess and evaluate the level of achievement of the program outcomes during the course of the educational process. These relate to the skills, knowledge, and behaviors that students acquire in their matriculation through the program. The documentation of the continuous improvement process, prepared by our engineering programs, describes two intersecting assessment loops; slow and fast. The slow loop refers to the process by which the program examines its program outcomes. The fast loop refers to the process by which we assess the degree to which our students and graduates achieve the educational program objectives developed in the slow loop. The stages of developing and implementing the objectives, outcomes and the assessment plan for the engineering programs are presented. Preliminary results from pilot implementations are also presented. Improvements are already evident in the areas of teaching effectiveness, assessment of student learning, and involvement of all the constituencies. Based on these procedures, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) visit to our engineering programs had achieved great success and all of the programs have fully accredited on August 2010 and the next visit to our engineering programs will be on 2016.