An Outcome Based approach to delivery and assessment of a course in Control System Design

Abstract

Outcome Based Education is an approach that focuses on the behavior change in the learning of students rather than the learning process. What student is able to perform within a realm of technical expertise after the learning process is of utmost importance. Recently, it becomes mandatory for all the higher learning institutions in Malaysia to implement the outcome based education approach to the existing models of their engineering programs. This is because OBE has become the prerequisite for obtaining the accreditation from the Board of Engineers Malaysia and also the Engineering Accreditation Council. It is for this reason that the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA is transforming all the degree programs to embed the OBE approach. This paper intends to present our experience in transforming a course in Control System Design from the classical model to the GPA/OBE hybrid framework. The definition of course outcomes, program outcomes, the mapping of course and program outcomes, embedding of course and program outcomes in the curriculum design and delivery of content and the assessment process are discussed. This design is observed to be capable of offering possible solutions to the few challenges expressed by previous works. In addition, it is found to be able to provide an evidence based platform for the measurement of technical competence and behavioral change in learning, which indirectly reflect the attributes of engineer, as dictated by the accreditation bodies. From the recent assessment, it is found that [36% 39% 25%] of the student population is rated [strong moderate weak] in their ability to apply systematic approach to solve control engineering problem. On the other hand, [6% 27% 67%] of the sampled student population has demonstrated [strong moderate weak] in their ability to make use of in-depth knowledge.