An ABET Presentation to EECS Faculty
by Gursel Serpen, PhD
4 November 2009
EECS 4000 Senior Design
Student Learning Objectives
 (In support of ABET Engineering Criterion 3 Outcomes
a-k and Criterion 4)
 Course specific student learning objectives (SLO),
which constitute the measurable quantities in direct
support of ABET Criterion 3 outcomes were devised as
follows.
EECS 4000 SLOs
The student will be able to design a complex system (or component
or process) to realistic performance specifications in compliance
with applicable engineering standards and multiple realistic
constraints, and report the results through a comprehensive and
professional technical write-up and oral/poster presentation.
2. The student will be able to build a prototype of a design and
demonstrate that it meets performance specifications.
3. The student will be able to list and discuss several possible reasons
for deviations between predicted and measured results from an
experiment or design, and choose the most likely reason and justify
the choice.
4. The student will be able to identify the stages of team development
and give examples of team behaviors that are characteristic of each
stage.
1.
EECS 4000 SLOs
 The student will be able to summarize effective strategies
for dealing with a variety of interpersonal and
communication problems that commonly arise in
teamwork, choose the best of several given strategies for a
specified problem, and justify the choice.
 The student will be able to function effectively on a team,
with effectiveness being determined by instructor
observation, peer ratings, and self-assessment.
 The student will be able to explain aspects of a project,
process, or product related to specified engineering and
non-engineering disciplines.
EECS 4000 SLOs
 Given a job-related scenario that requires a decision with
ethical implications, the student will be able to identify
possible courses of action and discuss the pros and cons of
each one, pick the best course of action and justify the
decision.
 The student will be able to write an effective technical
correspondence (i.e. abstract, executive summary, project
report) or give an effective oral presentation… (
specifications regarding the length and purpose of the
communication and the intended audience).
 The student will be able to propose a solution or critique a
proposed solution to an engineering problem, identifying
possible negative global or societal consequences and
recommending ways to minimize or avoid them.
EECS 4000 SLOs
 The student will be able to find relevant sources of information
about a specified topic in the library and on the World Wide Web
(or perform a full literature search).
 The student will be able to participate effectively in a team
project and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the individual
team members (including him/herself) and the team as a unit.
 The student will be able to identify important contemporary
regional, national, or global problems that involve engineering.
 The student will be able to propose and discuss ways engineers
are contributing or might contribute to the solution of specified
regional, national, and global problems.
ABET Criterion 3 Outcomes
(Supported by EECS 4000 Student Learning Objectives)
 The following list of ABET EC 2000 Criterion 3 outcomes were identified
following a rigorous process of determining the set of student learning
objectives that can be facilitated through the EECS 4000 course.
 The set of student learning objectives that support realization of a particular
ABET Criterion 3 outcome is listed in Appendix 1.
 Accordingly, following ABET Criterion 3 outcomes (subset of ABET a-k) were
identified to be measureable (indirectly) through the 14 student learning
objectives:
 Outcome 3c (design a system, component, or process)
 Outcome 3d (function on multi-disciplinary teams)
 Outcome 3f (understand professional and ethical responsibility)
 Outcome 3g (communicate effectively)
 Outcome 3h (understand the global/societal impact of engineering solutions)
 Outcome 3i (recognize the need for life-long learning and able to engage in it)
 Outcome 3j (know contemporary issues)
 Outcome 3k (Use modern engineering techniques, skills, and tools)
Instructional Methods, Strategies,
and Actions
 Facilitating the realization of the student learning
objectives requires instituting a comprehensive set of
instructional methods (IM), strategies, and actions.
 Such a list incorporates the following:
ABET
Student Learning Objectives
Criterion 3
Instructional Methods, Strategies,
and Actions
1. Include design methods in
The student will be able to
Outcome
lectures. Provide constructive
1. design a system (or
3c (design
feedback and give substantial
component or process) to
a system,
weight in grading.
(insert one or more goals or
component
2. Provide study guides with
functions) and report the
, or
learning objectives that deal
results (insert specifications
process)
with every aspect of the process
regarding the required scope
used to solve the design
and structure of the report).
problem. Give individual tests
2. build a prototype of a design
consistent with the study
and demonstrate that it meets
guides.
performance specifications.
3. Bring experienced design
3. list and discuss several
engineers into engineering
possible reasons for deviations
classes to talk about and give
between predicted and
examples of what they do.
measured results from an
experiment or design, choose
the most likely reason and
justify the choice, and
formulate a method to validate
the explanation.
ABET
Criterion 3
Student Learning Objectives
Instructional Methods,
Strategies, and Actions
Outcome 3d
(function on
multidisciplinary
teams)
1. As feasible, assign projects that
The student will be able to
1. identify the stages of team
involve material and methods
development and give examples of
from different disciplines—
team behaviors that are
e.g., different branches of
engineering and physical
characteristic of each stage.
2. summarize effective strategies for
sciences, biological sciences,
dealing with a variety of
mathematical sciences,
interpersonal and communication
computer science, economics,
problems that commonly arise in
and management science.
teamwork, choose the best of several 2. Form teams and assign team
given strategies for a specified
members to be responsible for
the portions of the project
problem, and justify the choice.
3. function effectively on a team, with
associated with the different
effectiveness being determined by
disciplines. (If the students
instructor observation, peer ratings,
actually come from different
disciplines, so much the
and self-assessment.
4. explain aspects of a project, process,
better.)
or product related to specified
engineering and non-engineering
disciplines.
ABET
Criterion 3
Student Learning Objectives
Instructional Methods,
Strategies, and Actions
Outcome 3d
(function on
multidisciplinary
teams)
3. Require a team journal
The student will be able to
1. identify the stages of team
(diary) to be maintained.
development and give examples of 4. Provide training in effective
team behaviors that are
team functioning. Facilitate
an interactive, hands-on
characteristic of each stage.
2. summarize effective strategies for
workshop with a variety of
dealing with a variety of
activities pertaining to
interpersonal and communication
different aspects of team
problems that commonly arise in
dynamics.
teamwork, choose the best of
5. Provide study guides with
several given strategies for a
learning objectives that
specified problem, and justify the
cover elements of effective
multidisciplinary team
choice.
3. function effectively on a team, with
functioning (including
effectiveness being determined by
strategies for crossinstructor observation, peer ratings,
disciplinary communication
and ways of dealing with
and self-assessment.
4. explain aspects of a project, process,
common team
or product related to specified
dysfunctionalities), and give
engineering and non-engineering
individual tests consistent
disciplines.
with the guides.
Outcome 3f
(understand
professional
and ethical
responsibility)
Given a job-related
1. Include elements of ethical and professional
scenario that requires
responsibility in course learning objectives.
a decision with
2. Provide opportunities for continuing
ethical implications,
education in engineering ethics in the form
the student will be
of seminar talks, discussion groups, online
tutorials/courses or supplementary
able to
1. identify possible
handouts.
courses of action 3. Include elements of ethical and professional
and discuss the
issues and analysis as relevant for the design
pros and cons of
project in progress.
each one, and
a) Have students formulate responses and
decide on the best
justifications individually, then reach
course of action
consensus in pairs or teams.
and justify the
b) Provide constructive feedback and
several alternative models of good
decision.
responses, being sure to convey the idea
that there is not one “correct” response
and that what matters is the clarity and
logical consistency of the justification.
c) Have the students reformulate their
initial responses to the ethical and
professional dilemmas in light of the
feedback.
Outcome
3g
(communic
ate
effectively)
The student will be able 1. Provide specialized instruction for technical
report writing or oral presentation. Offer
to
1. write an effective
bad examples for students to critique and
technical
good and bad examples for them to compare
correspondence (i.e.
and contrast.
abstract, executive
2. Provide very detailed and descriptive
summary, project
written technical report and oral technical
report) or give an
presentation templates for each such
effective oral
activity.
presentation… (
3. Include some qualitative descriptive
specifications
problems (“Explain in terms a high school
regarding the length
senior could understand the concept of ___”) in
and purpose of the
course learning objectives, in-class exercises
communication and
and homework, and study guides and tests.
Grade both technical correctness and clarity
the intended audience).
of expression.
4. Have students (or student teams) critique
first drafts or presentations of other
students’ (teams’) reports, considering both
technical accuracy and presentation quality
in the critiques. For written reports, collect
but do not grade the first drafts; for written
and oral reports, grade both the critiques
and the revised draft or final presentation.
Outcome 3h The student will be
(understand able to
1. propose a
the
solution or
global/socie
critique a
tal impact of
proposed
engineering
solution to an
solutions)
engineering
problem,
identifying
possible
negative global
or societal
consequences
and
recommending
ways to
minimize or
avoid them.
1. Require library and Web searches and
documentation of references. Grade on the
thoroughness of the searches and the
quality of the documentation.
2. Introduce case studies of realistic industrial
problems and have the students identify
what they would need to know to solve
them and how they would go about
obtaining the needed information.
3. In general, anything done to meet Criteria
3e (identify and formulate engineering
problems), 3f (understand professional and
ethical responsibility), and 3h
(understanding of global/societal context of
engineering solutions) automatically
addresses Criterion 3i.
Outcome 3i
The student will be able to
(recognize the 1. find relevant sources of
need for lifeinformation about a specified
long learning
topic in the library and on the
and be able to
World Wide Web (or perform a
full literature search).
engage in it)
2. participate effectively in a team
project and assess the strengths
and weaknesses of the
individual team members
(including himself or herself)
and the team as a unit.
Same as Outcome 3h
Outcome 3j
The student will be able to 1. Incorporate some in-class exercises,
1. identify important
assignments, and/or case studies
(know
contemporary regional,
that involve current global/societal
contemporary
national, or global
issues in several. (Recent newspaper
issues)
problems that involve
articles and science and society texts
are good sources of topics.)
engineering.
2. propose and discuss
a) Include such issues as
ways engineers are
environmental/economic
contributing or might
tradeoffs, health and
contribute to the
safety/economic tradeoffs,
solution of specified
problems related to
regional, national, and
globalization such as
movement of production
global problems.
facilities to other countries, total
quality management, and pros
and cons of government
regulation of private industry.
b) Ask students to generate
potential solutions and evaluate
them.
c) Have students present and
debate their findings in an
interactive session.
Outcome 3k
(Use modern
engineering
techniques,
skills, and
tools)
Intentionally, no
1. Have students use state-of-thelearning objective was
art technology for engineering
identified for this
system design, control, and
analysis, mathematical analysis,
outcome.
Web-based research, writing, and
communication.
Assessment Plan & Tools
 The assessment plan,
 which measures the degree to which each of the
proposed student learning objectives for EECS 4000 are
being satisfied,
 is expected to dwell on two important principles:
 triangulation and
 assessment rubrics [Felder et. al., 2003]:
Triangulation
 (using multiple methods to obtain and verify a result)
is an important feature of effective assessment.
 The more tools used to assess a specific course
learning objective, the greater the likelihood that the
assessment will be both valid (meaning that what the
chosen method is actually assessing matches what is
supposedly being assessed) and reliable (the
conclusion would be the same if the assessment were
conducted by other assessors or again by the same
assessor).
Assessment Rubric
 In order to design a reliable rating method, an effective
approach is to identify aspects of the product or
presentation to be rated (e.g., for grading project or
laboratory reports, the aspects might be technical
soundness, organization, thoroughness of discussion,
and quality of writing), select a weighting factor for
each aspect, and construct a rubric — a form on which
the evaluator assigns numerical ratings to each
specified aspect and then uses the specified weighting
factors to compute an overall rating.
Assessment Tools
 Accordingly, the following list of assessment tools (AT) was
conceived to be relevant and feasible while attempting to
implement the triangulation principle:
 Assignments, reports, and tests
 Student surveys, individual and group interviews
 Engineering notebooks or journals, both individual and team
 Peer evaluations, self-evaluations
 Written tests or test items clearly linked to learning objectives
 Written project reports, i.e. proposal, progress, preliminary
design, critical design, and final reports
 Oral presentations
 Project proposals or problem statements (student-formulated)
 Written critiques of documents or oral presentations
SLOs vs. Assessment Tools
AT-1
AT-2
AT-3
AT-4
AT-5
AT-6
AT-7
AT-8
S
P
P
S
SLO-1
P
SLO-2
S
S
P
P
SLO-3
P
S
P
S
P
P
SLO-4
SLO-5
P
SLO-6
P
P
S
P
P
S
P
P
P
P
P
SLO-7
S
SLO-8
P
SLO-9
S
SLO-10
S
SLO-11
P
SLO-12
S
P
SLO-13
P
P
S
P
SLO-14
P
P
S
P
P
P
S
S
P
S
P
P
P
P
P
P
P
S
P
AT-9
S
P
Thank
You!