Sustainable Program Assessment Practices: A Review of the ABET and NCAAA Computer Information Systems Accreditation Process.

Saqib Saeed,Hina Gull,Madeeha Saqib,Dina A Alabaad,Asiya Abdus Salam,Abdullah M Almuhaideb,Yasser A Bamarouf,Sardar Zafar Iqbal

doi:10.3390/ijerph182312691

Abstract

Program outcome assessment is a complex process that demands careful planning and resources in order to accurately assess higher-order thinking skills. A well-defined assessment approach provides detailed insights into program weaknesses and leads to continuous improvement. Whereas a poor assessment approach does not reflect the underlying weaknesses and may result in a useless effort. Furthermore, each accreditation body may have a different recommended outcome measurement approach. As a result, academic institutions may make adhoc choices just to satisfy accreditation requirements rather than designing a sustainable measurement approach. On the other hand, the magnitude of huge tasks for satisfying multiple accreditation bodies results in fatigue and mental stress for academic staff. ABET is a well-known international program accreditation body, and NCAAA is a local accreditation body for academic programs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In this paper, we have documented that how a sustainable outcome measurement mechanism can be designed to satisfy both ABET and NCAAA requirements. The core contribution of this paper is relevant specifically for academic programs in the Kingdom striving to meet both ABET and NCAAA requirements and is also relevant for all education programs to design an appropriate program assessment approach to ensure a sustainable process to foster better learning among students.

Highlights

Accreditation has become an important quality assurance tool for higher education institutions to improve their processes and to use as a marketing tool to attract more students and funding
When we mapped Arabia in the context of international (ABET) proposed CIS student outcomes into learning domains of National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA), we found that these outcomes are mapped to only Skills and Values domains, and there is no learning outcome at the knowledge & understanding level
ABET recommends measuring performance indicators whereas NCAAA is only concerned with Student Outcomes (SOs)/PLOs, in our program mapping we have considered both of them

Summary

Introduction

Accreditation has become an important quality assurance tool for higher education institutions to improve their processes and to use as a marketing tool to attract more students and funding. There are many local as well as international accreditation agencies in different geographical regions that accredit institutions or a particular program. The majority of the accreditations can be termed as single-tier accreditation, where a particular criterion needs to be satisfied by aspiring academic institutes/programs and there is no further classification among accredited programs. Due to the recent focus on outcome-based education, an academic program intended for accreditation needs to provide evidence that it has a comprehensive system of measuring the intended outcomes of the program. Student outcome attainment requires that higher-order thinking skills be measured to ensure that students have gained the required mastery of skills to be successful in their future professional careers.

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Conclusion