Abstract
Recently, engineering graduates who acquired different skills, as well as leadership capabilities, are very much demanded to maintain high-level innovation, dealing with emerging technologies, and fulfilling the various needs of the public. Consequently, it is necessary that academicians in engineering programs develop appropriate curricula to achieve excellence in engineering education. Being accredited from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) is an indication that an academic program has fulfilled international standards in engineering education. The main element in ABET evaluation process is Student Outcomes (SOs) as they incorporate several capabilities and skills expected by stakeholders such as employers. In this study, we used Interpretive Structural Modeling technique (ISM), which is a soft operational research technique, to prioritize SOs and develop a precise study plan for the Industrial Engineering program at Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering (IMSE) at Kuwait University (KU). This plan showed an intelligible depiction of the relationships between the SOs and a clear direction on how to merge them within the engineering study plan. For data collection, surveys were developed and conducted to faculty members at IMSE Department at KU in addition to a set of employers within the country. The results indicated that ISM model facilitates a clear understanding of the relationships among SOs within the Industrial Engineering study plan at IMSE at KU. In addition, it recommended that students should understand the professional and ethical responsibilities at early stages of the study plan and that should be followed by training them on effective communication techniques.
Highlights
Education is one of utmost importance for any country
Country’s policies and strategic management efforts of both governmental and private organizations heavily depend on excellence in each and every sector, and engineering as of today continues to play one of the most vital roles in terms of education
It may be possible to start with planning of SOs starting from second year or even third year, while finishing all of the SOs within third year may be feasible depending on the further analysis on the education system and the SOs. This can be considered as a limitation of the study and one of the main differences between King Abdulaziz University (KAU) Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) study and other education plans contented by the universities. Another difference is that we provide another perspective by incorporating the data from both the Kuwait University’s faculty members and key personnel from Kuwait’s business companies to determine and model the relationship between Student Outcomes (SOs), and even though our sample size is not large, we are able to combine two different classes of stakeholders to design a common sense SO cluster, which is industrially different from the KAU ISM study, and which is tailored for a broader range of education periods
Summary
Country’s policies and strategic management efforts of both governmental and private organizations heavily depend on excellence in each and every sector, and engineering as of today continues to play one of the most vital roles in terms of education. A teaching program to raise generations of students will only be successful if there is a curriculum that is extensive yet collaborative with world standards, and innovative yet conforming to country’s cultural needs. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) is playing the role of measuring these aspects to make sure that a teaching program remains satisfactory. This study is unique in terms of ISM’s application to include both the Kuwait University’s faculty members and key personnel from Kuwait’s business companies to determine and model the relationship between Student Outcomes (SOs) and what work should be done to obtain these outcomes. A proper alignment of a broader range of constituents needs is assumed to be obtained while designing the designated program
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