Towards Liberal Education Assessment In Engineering And Technology Programs

Abstract

Our regional accrediting body, New England Association of Schools and Colleges, requires outcome assessment of core liberal education outcomes. Because of this mandate, and our new mission at the University to prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to thrive and be engaged in a pluralistic, complex world, we have undertaken a project to develop and assess core liberal education outcomes. This paper describes the planning and actions taken to meet these new requirements in our engineering and technology programs. The college has expanded outcome assessment by including five “intellectual and practical skills,” specifically, critical and creative thinking, inquiry/analysis, problem-solving, and information literacy. VALUE rubrics are being incorporated into the process to ascertain the best opportunities to measure student achievement within the engineering and technology programs. An assessment framework is presented and pilot results are discussed.