Assessment of student professional outcomes for continuous improvement

Abstract

This article describes a method for the assessment of professional student outcomes (performance-type outcomes or soft skills). The method is based upon group activities, research on modern electrical engineering topics by individual students, classroom presentations on chosen research topics, final presentations, and technical report writing. Assessment activities include application of a checklist that measures professional student outcomes of teamwork, life-long learning, and communication skills including oral and written communication and presentation skills.The results are discussed with the students and faculty for feedback purposes to establish a stronger relationship between quality assurance and continuous improvement of professional student outcomes crucial for engineers to be successful in their profession.

What Matters in Higher Education A meta-analysis of a decade of learning design

“…Fifteen of the identified articles (n=26, 57.69%) included the word "authentic" or "authenticity" in: the title, abstract and keywords (n=6); the abstract and keywords (n=3); the title and abstract (n=1); or only the abstract (n=5). These self-identified "authentic" articles were: Borthwick, Lefoe, Bennett & Huber, 2007;Burton, 2010;Collis, et al, 2005;Chan, 2011;Cydis, 2015;Griffiths, 2012;Isoardi, 2010;Keshavarz & Baghdarnia (2013); Lambert & Brewer, 2007;Latham & Carr, 2012;McKee, 2007;Morgan & Cox, 2006;Oliver, Herrington, Herrington & Reeves, 2007;Reushle & Mitchell, 2009;and, Shipton, 2009. There was, as noted, a small overlap with the "blended learning" articles addressed in the previous section (Collis et al, 2005;Hamilton & Richardson, 2007;Lambert & Bower, 2007).…”

Evaluation of competency methods in engineering education: a systematic review

“…He has extensive experience as a scientist and from 2012 he has been appointed as a part-time professor where he can spread his scientific knowledge and industry experience with Aerospace Engineering students at Delft University of Technology. (Saunders et al 2003;Wasserman, Schmidt, and Jendrucko 2003;Huyck, Ferguson, and Wasserman 2007;Amante et al 2010;Keshavarz and Vaziri 2012;Ryan 2012;Jones and Abdallah 2013;Bousaba et al 2014;Mourtos 2014;Colsa et al 2015;Eichelman, Clark, and Bodnar 2015;García et al 2015;Ortiz et al 2015;de-Juan et al 2016;Galván-Sánchez et al 2017) Visual/written aids (n = 11) Use media, graphics, writing texts that support the oral exposition (Saunders et al 2003;Huyck, Ferguson, and Wasserman 2007;Keshavarz and Vaziri 2012;Ryan 2012;Jones and Abdallah 2013;Bousaba et al 2014;Mourtos 2014;Colsa et al 2015;García et al 2015;Ortiz et al 2015;Galván-Sánchez et al 2017) Speech delivery (n = 9)…”

“…Modulate the voice, maintain eye contact and use body language (Saunders et al 2003;Wasserman, Schmidt, and Jendrucko 2003;Amante et al 2010;Keshavarz and Vaziri 2012;Ryan 2012;Bousaba et al 2014;Colsa et al 2015;Eichelman, Clark, and Bodnar 2015;Galván-Sánchez et al 2017) Content development (n = 7)…”

“…Use orally appropriate, relevant and compelling content that shows mastery of the subject (Saunders et al 2003;Wasserman, Schmidt, and Jendrucko 2003 Interact with and adapt the oral communication to different audiences (Wasserman, Schmidt, and Jendrucko 2003;Bousaba et al 2014;Dohaney et al 2015;Ortiz et al 2015) Questions and answers (n = 4) Understand and answer questions (Saunders et al 2003;Amante et al 2010;Keshavarz and Vaziri 2012;Ryan 2012) Team uniformity (n = 2) Show homogeneous transition between the presenters (visual and oral presentation) (Ryan 2012;Galván-Sánchez et al 2017) Written communication (n = 24) Language (n = 13) Use the appropriate vocabulary, syntax and grammar (Saunders et al 2003;Wasserman, Schmidt, and Jendrucko 2003;Flateby and Fehr 2008;Keshavarz and Vaziri 2012;Jones and Abdallah 2013;Mourtos 2014;Eichelman, Clark, and Bodnar 2015;Frank et al 2015;García et al 2015;Backer 2016;Barr 2016;de-Juan et al 2016;Fries et al 2017) Report organization (n = 12) Develop a clear, logic, structured and organised report (Saunders et al 2003;Wasserman, Schmidt, and Jendrucko 2003;Flateby and Fehr 2008;Keshavarz and Vaziri 2012;Jones and Abdallah 2013;Mourtos 2014;Eichelman, Clark, and Bodnar 2015;Frank et al 2015;Barr 2016;de-Juan et al 2016;…”

“…References Content development (n = 10) Write appropriate, relevant and compelling content that shows mastery of the subject (Saunders et al 2003;Wasserman, Schmidt, and Jendrucko 2003;Flateby and Fehr 2008;Keshavarz and Vaziri 2012;Jones and Abdallah 2013;Mourtos 2014;Eichelman, Clark, and Bodnar 2015;Frank et al 2015;Barr 2016;Fries et al 2017) Source citation (n = 8) Cite sources accurately (Saunders et al 2003; Barnes, Dyrenfurth, and Newton 2012;Jones and Abdallah 2013;Eichelman, Clark, and Bodnar 2015;Frank et al 2015;García et al 2015;Barr 2016; Ramírez-Echeverry, Olarte Dussán, and García-Carillo 2016) Context and purpose (n = 6) Perform a report according to the context and purpose of the situation (Wasserman, Schmidt, and Jendrucko 2003;Flateby and Fehr 2008;Eichelman, Clark, and Bodnar 2015;Frank et al 2015;Barr 2016; Ramírez-Echeverry, Olarte Dussán, and García-Carillo 2016) Audience (n = 4)…”