Outcome-Based Engineering Education: A Global Report of International OBE Accreditation and Assessment Practices

Abstract

In this research paper, we present—as a geographically dispersed set of academics working in nine different countries: namely, Pakistan, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Qatar, China, and Malaysia—a global international perspective on Outcome-based Education (OBE) accreditation standards, practices, and attitudes. The OBE paradigm is now the underlying paradigm followed by global accreditation efforts such as the Washington Accord (ratified in 1989). The shift to OBE is so pronounced that some education experts identify the shift to OBE and accreditation as one of the top 5 major changes of the last 100 years. Although OBE is often criticized for straitjacketing education, and resisted by hesitant faculty members suspecting additional burden, studies show that the OBE movement, on the whole, has helped in improving the educational standards and outcomes by ensuring proper planning of curriculum and assessment and their alignment with the program objectives and desired outcomes. OBE is also flexible in the sense that it does not dictate the choice of specific education strategies or teaching methods—it only says what should be the outcome. New OBE schemes have also diversified in response to early misgivings about OBE (related to excessive paperwork, and bean-counting-like auditing) and now admit diverse types of evidence (including qualitative and quantitative, formative and summative, formal and informal assessments). The aim of this work is to present a synthesis of the experiences of an international set of authors and the sharing of the global best practices in the field related to accreditation and assessment. An extensive internal survey was conducted to collect data from these international academics. After processing the data, we have organized our analysis as a discussion on a range of accreditation stages and artifacts including vision/mission statements, program objectives and outcomes, curriculum planning, educational assessment strategies, common pitfalls, and iterative continuous improvement. This paper will be a helpful starting guide for faculty members new to OBE, while also offering a broader perspective to experienced faculty members and administrators.

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“…The revised form (Krathwohl, 2002) essentially differs in the last level: Create. In course curriculum design, the taxonomy is broadly used for devising the Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs), alternatively called Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) in some outcome-based education and accreditation regimes (Qadir et al, 2020), and for choosing the right teaching modalities or activity (e.g., lecture, group work, project work, internship).…”

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“…(1) program learning outcomes (PLOs) and (2) course learning outcomes (CLOs) [5]. These terms are sometimes unfortunately used interchangeably but we note these distinctions as they are commonly understood in the OBE paradigm.…”

“…(The Washington Accord, originally signed in 1989, is an international agreement facilitated by the International Engineering Alliance between the accreditation bodies responsible for accrediting engineering degree programs in various parts of the world [3].) OBE is considered the brainchild of the sociologist William Spady [4,5], who defined "outcome" as a "culminating demonstration of learning" where demonstration is to be seen in the learner actually doing (e.g., describe, explain, design, construct, produce, negotiate, operate) something tangible, visible, and observable with the curricular concepts. In the OBE paradigm, the instructional and assessment/evaluation practices are explicitly designed for ensuring the attainment of predefined learning outcomes that are aligned to broader, long-term educational objectives.…”

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“…In OBE terminology, the most important objective-related term is program educational objectives (PEOs). When we come to outcomes, there are two principal types of outcomes: (1) program learning outcomes (PLOs) and (2) course learning outcomes (CLOs) [3]. These terms are sometimes unfortunately used interchangeably but we note these distinctions as they are commonly understood in the OBE paradigm.…”

“…Metacognition-the ability to know one's thinking, to selfevaluate, to mentally simulate what would happen if one thought this way or that way, and the limits of one's thinkingplays a fundamental role in human learning. The teaching of metacognition is listed as the most successful educational intervention in a website put together by the British Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), 3 where this intervention is described as high impact for very low cost, based on extensive evidence. This is because our mindset, or our belief system, fundamentally affects our actions, goals, and perception.…”