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EC2000: What to Expect/ What is Expected?

Daina Briedis Michigan State University

All U.S. engineering programs, except those with outstanding conventional criteria issues (show cause or interim evaluations) should now be on board with Engineering Criteria 2000. As of Fall, 2001, these are now the standard for accreditation, yet institutions are still at varying levels of preparedness and willingness to be evaluated under these criteria.

This paper summarizes the observations I have made on the EC2000 transition process both from the program’s and ABET’s perspectives. Information from EC2000 visits, ABET reports, workshops, and discussions in the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of ABET have contributed to these observations. The focus of this paper is mainly on Criterion 3 issues, with some commentary on Criterion 2 and Criterion 4. These three criteria are the focus of most discussion in journal articles, workshops, conferences, team visits, and ABET training. The other five criteria are more familiar and are more routinely part of current practice in engineering programs.

The purpose of this paper is to make observations and sensitize readers to commonly observed problems in the implementation of EC2000 within engineering programs and within ABET. The purpose is not to offer solutions to all the problems, but specific suggestions are provided in some instances.

Definitions Criterion 2 addresses the program educational objectives, and Criterion 3 describes student outcomes and their assessment. Although ABET has not provided its constituencies with definitions for the important terms in these criteria (and with some major negative consequences—more on this later), the general understanding of the meaning of these terms used at assessment workshops, within ABET and on its evaluation teams is as follows.

Program educational objectives are broad statements that describe the expected accomplishments of graduates during the first few years after graduation1, while program outcomes are statements that describe what students are expected to know and are able to do by the time of graduation, the achievement of which indicates that the student is equipped to achieve the program educational objectives1. The objectives guide the program in a broad sense, and outcomes relate more directly to specifics about student learning in the program. These definitions will be used in this paper.

Observations on Institutions and Programs As the typical visit cycle begins, the first major piece of evidence for accreditation offered by a program is its self-study. Over the past three years it has been observed that the preparation of program self-studies has been spotty and inconsistent2. Some self-studies provide useful evaluative materials for the program evaluators (PEVs) and answer directly to the criteria and the

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Briedis, D. (2002, June), Ec2000: What To Expect/What Is Expected Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10830