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Keeping Track of Assessment and Other Quality Control Data under EC2000

James Patton, PhD, PE Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Maine

Abstract Recently, our department was reviewed under ABET’s EC2000 criteria. We struggled to strike a balance between gathering sufficient statistics and assessment data, while trying to minimize the continuous administrative overhead of doing so. As a small department, we cannot afford to hire additional personnel to support EC2000. As a result, we created databases, perl scripts, web forms, and other supporting materials to minimize the bookkeeping associated with maintaining our quality control system. This paper describes the tools that were developed to gather assessment data, process the data, report the data, provide documentation of actions taken in response to the data, and ensure our criteria are being appropriately satisfied by the curriculum. These tools serve to automate the data processing as much as we think is feasible and appropriate.

Introduction One of the challenges for small engineering departments implementing ABET EC2000 is finding the human resources to adequately administer and manage the associated record keeping.1 King and Schimmel discuss faculty motivation and the need to carefully control the amount of data collected2. Schmahl et al discuss the need for careful organization of data3. Gassert et al emphasize that materials should be prepared in such a way to allow easy program review4.

We did not expect to receive additional funding to support additional administrative staff, so we developed a process where data gathering and record management were automated. We have extensively incorporated the web in our process. In fact, the Department now keeps the master copy of its most important operating documents (including our ABET report) on the web for all to view.

An important assumption we made in designing our quality control process was the conscious effort to avoid the creation of sub-committees to task with assignments related to ABET. As much as possible, we wanted to include the whole faculty in the process and reduce the amount of record keeping associated with sub-committee discussions/reporting.

Another important assumption was that, to the maximum extent possible, we would utilize existing methods of student assessment. In other words, we believed our own grading system could be used to assess and track student performance with some slight modifications.

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Patton, J. (2002, June), Keeping Track Of Assessment And Other Quality Control Data Under Ec2000 Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10317