New programme assessment courses aim to elevate learning

This article is promoted by ABET.

One of the core missions of ABET, a global, non-governmental quality assurance organisation for post-secondary programmes in engineering, engineering technology, computing, and applied and natural sciences, is to increase awareness of the importance of outcomes-based education.

To achieve this, educational programmes need to be carefully designed, developed, delivered and evaluated with a focus on learning outcomes, ensuring that students who complete an educational programme are equipped to serve a global society in their fields.

When programmes do not achieve desired learning outcomes, it is crucial to identify the underlying reasons and make necessary adjustments to improve them.

While programme assessment is crucial and, once established, a natural process, many educators acknowledge the challenge of confidently establishing and improving systems to evaluate educational programmes and determine the best ways to enhance outcomes. This is an area where there is often a desire for more support and resources.

As a trusted leader in quality assurance, ABET recognised the need to support educators in creating a sustainable programme assessment process.

In addition to our current assessment resources and workshops, on 26 August ABET launched ‘ABET Credentials’, a robust suite of online courses designed to equip educators and learners with the skills necessary to excel in programme assessment and leadership.

These courses cover performance indicators and curriculum mapping; programme assessment methods and measures; effective rubrics for programme assessment; and surveys and questionnaires. They are designed to be self-paced, allowing participants the flexibility to learn at their own speed. Participants earn a digital badge for each course they complete, which can be displayed on social media, and in a resume or curriculum vitae.

Completing all four courses in the series grants an additional credentialing certificate, further enhancing participants’ professional qualifications.

Each course should take a maximum of five to six hours to complete and comprises a carefully designed mixture of video tutorials, reading and interactive learning, such as quizzes, to test understanding.

Designed for learning

In designing these online courses, ABET started by considering the basic learning objectives of each, based on the foundational keys for success at any higher education programme, regardless of discipline.

ABET’s course designers then broke these objectives down into digestible modules, working along learning design principles and enlisting a video production company to make the courses engaging and interactive. This approach utilises an expert in each module to guide participants through the learning objectives while ensuring continuous improvement.

Importantly, the courses are also designed to be adaptable to advancements in educational practices. For example, during the time the courses were being designed, artificial intelligence took a huge leap forward with the introduction of open-access generative AI tools.

In response, ABET’s course designers adapted two of the courses with an AI module, which guides participants on how to use AI in programme assessment. This flexible model allows for future updates to address other advances in education.

Each course is also replete with links to external online resources, which are systematically checked and updated as required.

Breaking down barriers

One of the key reasons for introducing these online courses is that they remove or at least significantly lower barriers to entry for academicians who have the potential to be programme assessment leaders at their institutions.

ABET recognised that the foundations and principles of programme assessment are consistent across disciplines and apply universally, regardless of where educators teach and who they are teaching. By extending knowledge of these principles to a broad audience, ABET aimed to elevate educational outcomes and make a positive impact.

Historically, sharing this knowledge hasn’t been easy. A programme director might need to travel to a different institution or attend conferences just to compare how courses were being delivered elsewhere.

Until now, ABET’s primary method of reaching academicians who wanted to upskill themselves in programme assessment has been through its series of workshops on designing, developing and evaluating educational programmes.

While these workshops are popular and successful for those able to attend, academicians working in certain time zones or with full schedules have found that cohort-based workshops are not practical or convenient.

ABET addressed this challenge. By providing online resources that academicians could access in their own time, we aimed to give them more control over how they acquired the knowledge and skills needed to devise and set student outcomes, performance indicators and programme educational objectives.

Instead of reaching a thousand or so people a year through our in-person or virtual instructor-led workshops, online courses have given ABET a way of reaching a much wider audience of people who could learn at their leisure.

Improving outcomes

ABET is equipped to meet a number of objectives via its online programme assessment courses.

First, ABET aims to improve educational outcomes by widening the pool of academicians who can effectively assess educational programmes. This includes reaching educators in all time zones and programmes outside the scope of ABET accreditation who still need to assess educational outcomes.

This also means reaching people who may not yet know about ABET or who have not attended an ABET educational programme in the past.

This initiative will increase upward mobility in education, enhancing the ability of both students and educators to move between educational programmes and institutions.

Finally, ABET is confident that the benefits of this initiative will go beyond science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, subjects, for which the organisation is best known, and will help upskill academicians in other areas of education.

As we continue to monitor participation and evaluate the effectiveness of these courses, we look forward to hearing the success stories of credential earners able to cite the tangible improvements in programme quality and student success. We are excited about the potential of this credentialing offering and the positive change it will bring to educational institutions worldwide.

International partnerships

As part of its commitment to promoting excellence in engineering education on a global scale, ABET has forged several partnerships with other leading international STEM-focused educational organisations. These relationships allow ABET to help advance STEM education around the world, including promoting sustainability and quality assurance across programmes.

Partners include the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies, the Global Engineering Deans Council, the International Engineering Alliance (IEA), the Seoul Accord, the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), the International Society for Engineering Pedagogy (IGIP), the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), the Indo-universal Consortium for Transforming Engineering Education, as well as others.

In December 2023, ABET became a member of WFEO as a primary means to focus on integrating and promoting global sustainability design into engineering education. It also established a strategic relationship with IGIP as a means to promote strong pedagogical design in enhancing the students’ educational experience in an ever more complex world.

Like ABET, WFEO and its members are committed to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), representing more than 30 million engineers and STEM professionals from over 100 nations.

Meanwhile, IGIP, a renowned international society dedicated to engineering pedagogy, has been promoting excellence in engineering education for over 45 years. The results of ABET’s collective work with WFEO and IGIP will address the many complex challenges facing our planet.

By partnering with its many global partners, ABET has access to an extensive network of international forums, conferences and workshops, where STEM-focused organisations share expertise, experiences, research, and provide a unique opportunity for professionals to meet and grow their network.

These opportunities for the exchange of ideas ensure ABET remains at the forefront of advancements in STEM education, enabling it to continually improve its impact on higher education.

ABET also partners with a number of other global quality assurance and accreditation organisations working to elevate the quality of STEM education within their own countries and regions.

In June 2024, ABET representatives participated in the 2024 IEA Meetings and the Seoul Accord (computing) Meetings in New Delhi, India, to ensure strong mutual recognition of accrediting systems while also meeting global standards and ensuring academic programmes are preparing students to enter today’s workforce and are also addressing the many complex challenges facing our world.

ABET is also a leader in training faculty and staff in the assessment of student learning globally.

In recent months, ABET representatives facilitated two workshops in Colombia to share best practices for higher education programme assessment, emphasising the unique cultural changes necessary to achieve and maintain high quality and effective programme assessment – including the use of artificial intelligence large language models like ChatGPT to help develop learning performance indicators.

ABET’s vast network of partnerships and opportunities to engage faculty around the world underscores its commitment to building a better world through quality STEM education.

Robyn Hall is director of professional programs at ABET and is based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States.

This article is promoted by ABET.