When developing a curriculum, one should have an eye to accreditation. In the US, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accredits STEM curricula at universities. Graduation from an ABET-accredited engineering program is a requirement for licensure as a Professional Engineer. ABET determines the student learning objectives for each type of program it will evaluate. Universities seeking accreditation must document in detail how they achieve the student learning objectives.
Obtaining accreditation for the first time takes several years. ABET cannot begin its assessment until after at least one cohort of students has graduated. So for a four-year engineering curriculum, there will be at least five years’ worth of students in various stages of completing the degree before the institution can apply for accreditation. If the program receives accreditation, it’s retroactive. That is, the students who have already graduated also have an accredited degree.
Each course addresses one or more student learning objectives. The instructors must determine how they will evaluate the students’ performance on specific assignments to ensure that the learning outcomes fulfill the objectives.
Individual accountability in team assignments
Suppose the students must demonstrate the ability to function in a multidisciplinary team. Clearly the class must include at least one team assignment. But how can the instructor evaluate how well the teams function?
As a student, I dreaded team projects because not everyone contributed equally. And it was difficult to get my peers to step up if they didn’t. Too often we who wanted to do well would pick up the slack, and the others would reap the benefits. We might resent them, and we might refuse to work with them again, but they suffered no other consequences.
In teaching part of the senior design course at St. Thomas, I’ve observed some ways the professors monitor how well the teams are working. Accountability makes for a better experience for everyone. While slackers may seem to be getting a better deal, they don’t learn much if they aren’t fully participating.
- In group presentations, professors ask probing questions to see how much each student knows about the project. No one is expected to understand the entire project in detail, but each one should know about the part they worked on.
- Over the two semesters, several professors will have worked fairly closely with each team, whether as the primary advisor or as a subject matter expert. If they perceive something amiss, they talk with the team to help them work through it.
- At the end of the course, the students confidentially rate each other’s performance. If everyone agrees that one person’s contribution was above and beyond, that person will receive a higher grade. Conversely, if they all agree that one person contributed less, that person will receive a lower grade.
- The professors also confer about the grades. Their observations about team interactions may result in adjustments to the grades.
Matching student learning objectives with student learning outcomes
When ABET evaluates a curriculum, they look at example assignments to see how well the learning outcomes meet the objectives. ABET makes an on-site visit to interview students and faculty as well as examine representative student assignments. Preparation for the site visit begins more than a year before with the collection of textbooks, sample projects, and assignments.
The institution must also prepare a Self-Study Report assessing the strengths and limitations of the program. ABET reviews this report before the site visit.
A few months after the site visit, ABET communicates the findings of the review team in a draft statement. The institution has one month to respond regarding any shortcomings noted in the draft statement.
The ABET commissions meet in the summer to determine which programs will receive accreditation.
All told, the accreditation process takes 18 months from the time the institution submits the readiness review. Accreditation is good for six years, at which time the institution must go through the entire process again.
Why bother with accreditation?
Occasionally I hear of academic programs that aren’t accredited. That’s understandable considering how much work accreditation requires. However, I believe academic institutions that don’t pursue accreditation do their students a tremendous disservice. Engineering students need ABET accreditation if they want to pursue PE licensure.
For some jobs, a degree from an accredited program is necessary. That is, a student may have spent four years working on a degree that turns out to be insufficient. It may have cost the same in terms of time and money, but it doesn’t qualify the graduate for the job. And how many students know they should look for appropriate accreditation?
This happened to a friend of mine. He’d been in graduate school for a few years when he realized that the institution was going in a direction he couldn’t accept. For the sake of his conscience, he needed to leave. He found a job teaching at a private elementary school. However, the college where he’d earned his bachelor’s degree wasn’t accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. That lack of accreditation has been a serious obstacle for him to obtain a teaching certificate, which he needs to keep his job.
For this reason I believe it’s incumbent on educational institutions to obtain the accreditation their graduates need. Financial aid programs could help by providing grants and loans only to students in accredited educational programs. Federal student aid is available only for use at institutions that are “accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or have met the alternative requirements”. However, accreditation of the individual educational programs is optional.