Introduction to Engineering Accreditation & OBE The FKE UTeM Experience

Hyreil Anuar Bin Hj Kasdirin Department of Control, Instrumentation & Automation (CIA) Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka Email: hyreil@utem.edu.my Homepage: www.utem.edu.my/myweb/hyreil Contact No: 06-555 2226 / Fax: ext 2222

Presentation Outcomes
Identify

& evaluate the importance of Engineering Accreditation by EAC Define the OBE and its implementation in the faculty Acknowledge the process of application for Accreditation

Presentation Outcomes

Identify

& evaluate the importance of Engineering Accreditation by EAC

Why Need Accreditation?

Why

Should My Program Seek Accreditation? Why it is important?

Accreditation provides you with a structured mechanism to assess, evaluate, and improve the quality of your program. Accreditation helps students, their parents, and also future employers to choose quality & wellprepared programs. Accreditation is used by registration, licensure, and certification boards to screen applicants.

Why Need Accreditation?

Why

Should I Choose an Accredited Program?

Accreditation

assures that a program has met quality standards set by the profession. To employers, graduate schools, and licensure, certification, and registration boards, graduation from an accredited program signifies adequate preparation for entry into the profession. In fact, many of these groups require graduation from an accredited program as a minimum qualification.

Are our faculty graduate is an Engineer, Technologist or Technician?

There are three agreements covering mutual recognition in respect of tertiary-level qualifications in engineering:
recognises substantial equivalence in the accreditation of qualifications in professional engineering, normally of four years duration. The Sydney Accord commenced in 2001 and recognizes substantial equivalence in the accreditation of qualifications in engineering technology, normally of three years duration. The Dublin Accord is an agreement for substantial equivalence in the accreditation of tertiary qualifications in technician engineering, normally of two years duration. It commenced in 2002.

The Washington Accord signed in 1989 was the first - it

Why must be accredited by The Washington Accord?

The Washington Accord, is an international agreement among bodies responsible for accrediting engineering degree programs. It recognizes the substantial equivalency of programs accredited by those bodies and recommends that graduates of programs accredited by any of the signatory bodies be recognized by the other bodies as having met the academic requirements for entry to the practice of engineering. One of the Accredited Programs from The Washington Accord is
ABET - (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology)

Why must be accredited by The Washington Accord?

Organizations holding provisional status have been identified as having qualification accreditation or recognition procedures that are potentially suitable for the purposes of the Accord
* Germany - Represented by German Accreditation Agency for Study Programs in Engineering and Informatics * India - Represented by National Board of Accreditation of All India Council for Technical Education * Malaysia - Represented by Board of Engineers - Malaysia Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) * Russia - Represented by Russian Association for Engineering Education * Sri Lanka - Represented by Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka etc

Why must be accredited by The Washington Accord?

The Need for an Outcomes Approach for

Continual Program Improvement (CQI)

Quality Assurance Division , Ministry of Higher Education

and the
A MULTINATIONAL AGREEMENT FOR THE MUTUAL RECOGNITION OF ENGINEERING DEGREES

Among member countries: substantial equivalency of accreditation systems. graduates prepared to practice engineering at the entry level

Malaysias WA Application

Why must be accredited by The Washington Accord?

Malaysia admitted as Provisional Member in 2003, alongside Germany, Japan, & Singapore An exercise in internationalization Demands the attainment of a global level of quality assurance

Implications of WA membership

WA demands 2 major efforts :1. Improvement of procedures, documentation, criteria, etc

easily attainable

2. a genuine shift towards OBE in the Malaysian Engineering - requires bigger effort Education System

Existing: conventional prescriptive-based system

Why Need Accreditation?

EAC, Engineering Accreditation Council, Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) Formed in 2000
Previous accreditation for engineering programs : PSD (1957) IEM (1959) BEM (1967) LAN(1996)

EAC
IEM LAN/MQA PSD /JPA

MCED, Malaysian Council for Engineering Deans BEM

Why Need Accreditation?

GOVERNED BY THE REGISTRATION OF ENGINEERS ACT 1967

(Revised 2002)

no person is allowed to practice unless he is a professional engineer professional engineer may use Ir before his name OR PEng after his name

graduate engineer to register before taking up employment as an engineer

Programs to be accredited in 2009 will have to be based on OBE

Those who has successfully completed an accredited engineering programme by EAC Professional Engineer - a graduate engineer who has obtained
the prescribed practical experience, passed the Professional Assessment Examination, and satisfied all other requirements of the Board of Engineers (BEM)

Presentation Outcomes

Define

the OBE and its implementation in the faculty

What is OBE? The Current Scenario

The concept of program educational OBJECTIVES and OUTCOMES is unfamiliar to most universities, this leads to the tendency of imparting and evaluating only technical outcomes of graduates. Too much focus on curriculum and educational process. Very prescriptive. For example: BITG1113 Prescriptive: Students would be exposed to the C

language.

Outcomes : Students should be to make use of

the C language in programming.

What is OBE? The Current Scenario

Program are reviewed every 5 years based on universities own review and comments from external examiners, i.e. no input from industrial and other stakeholders in program quality improvement. Universities are seen not serious enough to develop the more well-rounded outcomes of graduates in a systematic way. The seriousness is not manifested from the curriculum, learning design, assessment and evaluation methods. Accreditation process gives too much emphasis on the content and process and very prescriptive.

What is OBE? The Current Scenario

Doesnt require documented evidences on the achievement of the graduate attributes. Doesnt include external stakeholders or constituencies in any accreditation exercise and hence no feed back is received from these very important components. Not much assurance on the delivery of the outcome capabilities in every graduate.

What is OBE? The Advantages

Alert and concern qualities of the graduates produced. CQI with input and feedback from various constituencies or external stakeholders Students are well informed and trained of the skills required out of them Encourage more systematic, innovative and flexible teaching approach or learning design for example: AL & PBL Encourage more exposures to professional practice through LI, site visits, industry-linked projects or assignments, industry mentors, student dialogue with industry professionals or visiting industry speakers. Higher assurance of the delivery of the outcome capabilities in every graduate.

What is OBE?
(OUTCOME BASE EDUCATION)

Outcome-Based Education - A Shift in Focus

from curricula, resources and processes towards outcomes and objectives.
Talking about OBE, there are 3 levels:

2. Curricula / structures / procedures 3. Classroom practice (PBL, CL, AL, etc)

1. Philosophy / Theory / Broad Perspective

Make sure were talking at the same level

What is OBE? Outcome-Based - A More Logical Way Education

Example: Reasons for introducing a new course: Conventional: - tradition - a professor wants it OBE approach: - does it contribute to desired outcome/s?

- Some Immediate Advantages

Always alert on quality of graduates .More effective & innovative teaching - PBL, CL, etc More industry input

What is OBE?
(OUTCOME BASE EDUCATION)
OBE is a model of education that rejects the traditional focus on what the school provides to students, in favor of making students demonstrate that they "know and are able to do" whatever the required outcomes are. The emphasis in an OBE education system is on measured outcomes rather than "inputs," such as how many hours students spend in class, or what textbooks are provided. OUTCOMES
may include a range of skills and knowledge. The key things students should understand and

or the qualities they should develop. If the outcomes are not achieved they are rethought as to ensure there is a Continual Quality Improvement (CQI) within the education system.

be able to do

OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION
For EAC accreditation Accreditation will be made on the OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION (OBE) program Which means that our program will have to be based on OBE NO OBE = NO ACCREDITATION

The program that has greater focus on PEO & PO means that all stakeholders must have a say in establishing them, and measuring them. (Stakeholders industry, faculty, students, government, alumni, etc)

OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION
For EAC accreditation

Different Levels of OBE

Program Educational Objectives, PEO Program Outcome, PO Course or Subject or Outcomes / Learning Outcomes, LO Weekly or Topic Outcomes

PEO - Few years after graduation PO - Upon graduation LO - Upon subject completion Upon weekly / topic completion

OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION
For EAC accreditation
What will be involved in the process towards OBE? Course Content
Reviewing course content to suit specified Learning Outcomes, current development, industrial needs, job specifications, professional body requirement (accreditation), own niche, etc. Introducing innovative/flexible teaching methods/delivery tools to develop PEO and PO in students/graduates Introducing variety of assessment and evaluation tools to measure the achievement of PEO and PO. Collecting evidences of process involved and the achievement of the PEO and PO.

Teaching-Learning Methods

Assessment & Evaluation Tools

Data & Evidence Collection

OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION
For EAC accreditation
Assessment Assessment Alumni Missions Visions Stakeholders Advisory committee CQI CQI CQI Assessment
Analysis Analysis Analysis Analysis Analysis Analysis

PEO

PO

LO

Presentation Outcomes

Acknowledge

the process of application for Accreditation

Application for Accreditation

FKE

History

BEKP Full-Accreditation 2004 BEKC & BEKE

2

years Accreditation 2007 Submission for Extension 2009

BEKM Submission for Application 2009

Submission

to EAC for Accreditation Application

Refer http://www.bem.org.my/v3/downloads.html Select Accreditation Engineering Programme Accreditation Manual the EAC Manual 2007.pdf

Application for Accreditation

EAC Manual 2007

Evaluation by EAC Members: MQA, JPA, BEM and IEM How they evaluate?
It conducted to verify that the program under evaluation is in compliance with the appropriate accreditation criteria in this Manual. The evaluation exercise shall be conducted by an Evaluation Panel appointed by EAC (refer to Appendix A).

What type of decision they make?

Accreditation Decision: through the recommendation by the Evaluation Panel may decide on one of the following:

(i) To accord full accreditation for five years. (ii) To accord less than five years accreditation. (iii) To decline accreditation. In such a case, a further application will normally not be considered within the next one year.

Application for Accreditation

EAC Manual 2007
What

is their procedure?

Apply for Accreditation

For

a new program, should apply at least 6 months before the final examination of the first intake of students. For a current accredited program, should apply at least 6 months before the expiry date of the accreditation. The application shall ensure that complete information is forwarded to EAC through MQA.

Accreditation Visit
Normally The

be scheduled for a period of two days.

Report and Recommendation

report and recommendation, prepared by the visiting panels in accordance to Appendix D : Evaluation Panel Report

Application for Accreditation

EAC Manual 2007
Qualifying

Criteria

Requirements and Accreditation

The assessment involves a review of qualifying requirements and an evaluation based on the following criteria, apart from PEO and PO:
Criterion Criterion Criterion Criterion Criterion

The assessment process will involve two parts:

(i) Initial assessment of qualifying requirements. (ii) Detailed assessment of the program based on

1 Academic Curriculum 2 Students 3 Academic and Support staff 4 Facilities 5 Quality Management Systems

accreditation criteria.

the

Application for Accreditation

EAC Manual 2007
Accreditation
i.

Documents

For each program to be accredited:

Self Assessment Report (Section 8.2 EAC Manual) Hardcopy ii. Supporting Material Document (Section 8.3 EAC Manual) Digital Format including details of the syllabus. iii. Appendix C (Checklist of Documents for Accreditation/Approval of New program & Relevant Information) Institutional Documents and Additional Documentation (as noted in Section 8.4) to be made available during the visit.

Application for Accreditation

EAC Manual 2007
EACs

than 4-weeks) to recommend approval of the program to be conducted to recommend conditional approval for the program to be conducted with the provision that the IHL takes certain actions to rectify all the shortcomings indicated in the report within a specified period as determined by EAC not to recommend approval.

Decision (Received panel report less

Self-Assessment Report
Qualifying

Requirements

Minimum 120 credit hours of which 80 credit hours must be engineering subjects Final year project & Industrial training Minimum of 8 fulltime academic staff Staff : student ratio of 1:25 or better (ideally it should be 1:15 or better) External examiner's report Program Educational Objectives (PEO) & Programme Outcomes (PO)

Self-Assessment Report

Assessment Report

Their Details & Process Implementations Their establishment and evaluation of achievement as well as CQI Program structure, content, delivery & assessment and CQI Their distributions (engineering, non-eng, semester) Admission Process, policies, credit transfer, workload Involvement in Student Organizations Strength & competencies (academic, support staff) Overall workload & professional qualifications The adequacy of P&P and support facilities The faculty/university structure Program planning, development, & review as well as feedback External examiner feedback Quality assurances & benchmarking

PEO & PO 1: Academic Curriculum 2: Students

3: Academic and Support staff 4: Facilities 5: Quality Management Systems

Questions & Breakthrough

Reference
Presentation

Slides from

Prof Ir Dr Hj Wan Hamidon Hj Wan Badaruzzaman Prof Ir Dr Hassan Basri

http://eacaccreditation.blogspot.com/ http://www.abet.org/ http://www.washingtonaccord.org/ http://www.bem.org.my/v3/index.html

Thank you very much