Efficient Assessment Methods for Improving the Programme Outcomes of Undergraduate - Information Technology Programme in India

Abstract

Recently, most of the engineering educational institutions are assessing their degree programmes for improving their curriculum design, teaching methodologies, assessment and evaluation process. There are clear guidelines prescribed by the Government accreditation bodies of each country for defining, assessing various graduate Programme Outcomes (POs). There are two ways to assess the POs such as direct and indirect assessment. Direct assessment of the programme outcomes includes various curricular components such as continuous assessment, final examination, assignments and projects etc. In general, indirect assessment of the programme outcomes includes various survey components. We have followed the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) body of India, for defining and assessing our Information Technology (IT) programme outcomes. This paper includes the efficient strategies that we have practiced in our programme for improving the POs of undergraduate IT programme. We have grouped POs into three major categories such as knowledge, skill and attitude. Along with NBA guidelines for assessing the graduate degree programme, we have considered few other assessment components such as co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. In this paper, we have discussed the IT programme outcomes of the past three batches of students and their improvements year-by-year. From the results, it is evident that the strategies improved the entire POs of IT programme at our institution.