Development of Faculty Course Assessment Reports for ME Program ABET Accreditation

Abstract

The assessment of program outcomes for ABET accreditation has become a challenge for engineering programs nationwide. Various methods and approaches have been investigated to develop good practices for program assessment. At South Dakota State University (SDSU), an approach called Faculty Course Assessment Reports (FCAR) has been explored for mechanical engineering (ME) program assessment. FCAR provides an assessment tool to correlate the ME program outcomes with the outcomes of the core ME courses, and to evaluate student performance at the course level based on ABET outcome criterion. This process begins with the development of course objectives and outcomes. Then these course objectives and outcomes are directly mapped with the ME program objectives and outcomes respectively. Further the quantitative and qualitative details generated in the FCAR are lined up directly to ABET program outcome a to k criterion through FCAR rubrics. By use of the FCAR process, all ME program outcomes are evaluated at the course level based on the ABET program outcomes. The assessment results are being used for improvement of the ME curriculum. The process was developed to provide an effective tool for the ME program outcome assessment at the course level with reasonable effort.