Designing and Teaching Courses to Satisfy the ABET Engineering Criteria

Abstract

Since the new ABET accreditation system was first introduced to American engineering education in the middle 1990s as Engineering Criteria 2000, most discussion in the literature has focused on how to assess Outcomes 3a-3k and relatively little has concerned how to equip students with the skills and attitudes specified in those outcomes. This paper seeks to fill this gap. Its goals are to (1) overview the accreditation process and clarify the confusing array of terms associated with it (objectives, outcomes, outcome indicators, etc.); (2) provide guidance on the formulation of course learning objectives and assessment methods that address Outcomes 3a-3k; (3) identify and describe instructional techniques that should effectively prepare students to achieve those outcomes by the time they graduate; and (4) propose a strategy for integrating programlevel and course-level activities when designing an instructional program to meet the requirements of the ABET engineering criteria.

Changing professional demands in sustainable regional development: a curriculum design process to meet transboundary competence

“…They do so according to frameworks for joint quality standards for curricula in higher education. Examples are the American system of ABET criteria for engineering curricula (Felder and Brent, 2003;Felder et al, 2011;Shuman et al, 2005), the Australian generic 'graduate attibutes' (Byrne et al, 2010;Desha et al, 2009) Hence, coping with changing curricula should account for the hidden, institutional side especially in the global field of sustainable education (Rikers et al, 2011). By indicating the main obstacles, this study explains how one could cope with these conditions in the implementation process of the new curricula design.…”

Designing Solutions by a Student Centred Approach: Integration of Chemical Process Simulation with Statistical Tools to Improve Distillation Systems

“…The spirit of student-centered learning is also fully reflected in the Engineering Criteria of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), whose the approach focuses on learning outcome not on teaching input [13]. Also the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), just to refer a few give emphasis to the need to move towards a learner-centred, and technology enhanced learning approaches.…”

The Contribution of Capstone Projects in Green/Renewable Energy Areas to Growth of the Engineering Curriculum in Global Sustainable Development

“…The main objective of senior design courses in engineering and engineering technology curricula is to bridge the gap between academic theory and real world practice. As discussed in the ABET criteria [8] senior capstone projects should include elements of both credible analysis and experimental proofing.…”

“…To fill in the gap between the industry demand of specialized job skills and the current educational majors offered in the Greater Philadelphia and surroundings local colleges and universities, our Drexel University, Engineering Technology (ET) program offers a combined electrical and mechanical engineering technology major, with several courses related to renewable energy, energy conversion, green energy manufacturing and sustainability. Our main goal is to create a highly skilled professional workforce ready to "hit the ground running" after graduation and also having most of the qualities of a "global engineer", a critical thinker and an innovator which is in total agreement with ABET criterion c ("an ability to design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability") [7], [8]. During the past 8 years, our ET program developed courses oriented towards energy conversion and green energy and sustainability.…”