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First-Time Accreditation: Lessons Learned from the ABET Accreditation Process

Abstract

As the faculty from the new Industrial Engineering Program at Texas A&M University- Commerce (TAMUC) prepared for its first-ever program accreditation assessment from the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), the self-study team was able to create a thorough and effective plan to assess the processes used in the new IE Program. The internal assessment team, comprised of three tenure-track faculty members and assisted by various internal and external stakeholders, was able to create a well-structured self-study document which helped us better understand the need for continuous improvement processes across the educational system and to identify sources of data needed to verify the progress being made toward our stated goals and objectives. Another element of the self-study and site visit preparation process was to document results from various program constituents to help insure that Program Educational Objectives (PEOs) were being satisfied, as required by the accrediting body. Several tools were used throughout the self- study to identify course-level competencies (IECCs) that were then mapped to IE program-level outcomes (IEPOs) and finally to the stated program PEOs. Throughout the self-assessment process, feedback was collected and information was solicited from four basic sources, specifically: 1) Internal Informal sources, 2) Internal Formal sources, 3) External Formal sources, and 4) External Informal sources. This paper describes the processes used and corresponding results of the ABET Site Visit completed in October. A sample of the graphical tools used to identify, track, collect, analyze, and report various outcomes as they relate to recent graduates of our new IE Program will also be provided.

Background

The Industrial Engineering program at Texas A&M University-Commerce was established by the Texas Legislature with an effective operational date of August 2002. At that time, the initial projection was to have 30 students enrolled in the IE program when classes began in the Fall. As it turned out, over 70 students enrolled for classes leading to a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering at TAMUC. In each of the successive three years, enrollment in the IE Program at TAMUC has grown by 25 to 35 students per year. Current enrollment, after three years, is approximately 125 students, with more expected when classes begin in Fall 2006. Six students have graduated with a BS in Industrial Engineering from TAMUC and all six hold competitive positions in the IE discipline.

With this level of proven success so early in the program history, the next logical step was to submit a request for an accreditation assessment visit to the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). This request began with a completed Request for Evaluation (RFE), followed by a detailed self-study document, leading to an on-site visit by an accreditation assessment team. Once the site visit was concluded, the university had 14 days to submit any errors in fact to the chair of the visiting team, which would be used to prepare a draft statement to the institution. Once the draft

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Jackson, A., & Horton, E. D., & Johnson, M. (2006, June), First Time Accreditation: Lessons Learned From The Abet Accreditation Process Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--1342