Reflections on Outcomes Assessment and the ABET Accreditation Process

Summary Because of new accreditation guidelines included in Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC 2000) many of us in engineering education are in the midst of a transformation in the way we define a quality educational experience for our students. Traditionally, we have focused on measuring the quality of educational inputs (e.g. student quality, student/faculty ratio, number of books in the library, amount of research funding, size of the university endowment). Now, we must seriously consider how to move from an “inputs oriented” method of assessing quality to an “outcomes oriented” process in which we: • clearly define our constituencies and ask for their input periodically • describe what we want our student to know and be able to do using measurable terminology • determine how to make the measurements • decide what the data mean and what we should do to improve our program • determine how to inform all constituencies about our results and decisions • continue to work to improve the assessment process itself