A Collaborative Role for Industry in Assessing Student Learning. AIR 1999 Annual Forum Paper

This paper recounts the process of integrating industry into the assessment process in engineering education developed by the Synthesis Coalition, a group of colleges and schools working together to improve engineering education through development and implementation of curriculum reforms. Originating in the Coalition's efforts to introduce mechatronics into the curriculum, the process involved use of an advisory industrial board, the Mechatronics Industry Board (MIB). This Board broadened its mission to become involved in the entire process of the outcomes based assessment program. This paper describes the two track planning process developed to capitalize on the different expertise of the faculty and the MIB: first, to identify valued student learning outcomes and, second, to validate the Synthesis Assessment Framework, a document laying out the Coalition's student learning goals, learning outcomes, and criteria for measuring these outcomes. Twenty scenarios describing situations which engineers commonly encounter were developed and analyzed for necessary skills and abilities. The project also developed four assessment tools to measure student learning including two self and peer assessment questionnaires related to teamwork and oral presentation, a design project report, and a scenario assignment for which a scoring rubric was developed by MIB and the Coalition. (Contains 14 references.) (DB)