scholarly journals THE ATTRIBUTE ASSESSMENT PROCESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA

Author(s):  
Sandra Ingram ◽  
Jillian Seniuk Cicek ◽  
Nariman Sepehri

This paper describes a recent effort at the University of Manitoba to identify how CEAB graduate attributes are manifested and measured in the engineering curriculum. For this study, four attributes were chosen: Investigation and Design, part of the engineering hard skills, and Professionalism and Lifelong learning as representative of the professional skills of engineering. One third year course each from the Departments of Biosystems, Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical and Computer Engineering were selected to examine the four target attributes during the 2011 Fall term. The respective instructors were involved in completing a self-administered checklist with the intent to survey instructors’ understanding of how the four CEAB attributes were manifest in their courses, and mapping the targeted attributes to the identified courses. Results show that there is much more research needed in this area, with continued emphasis on the manifestation of the twelve CEAB attributes in individual courses, as well as research on student proficiency, and methods of communicating assessment. Although this study did not set out to compare the attributes to one another, there was some evidence that of the four attributes being measured across the four courses, hard skills were more prominently assessed than professional skills.

Author(s):  
Jillian Seniuk Cicek ◽  
Sandra Ingram ◽  
Nariman Sepehri

This paper describes the findings from athree-year longitudinal study at the University ofManitoba designed to explore how the CanadianEngineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) graduateattributes are manifested and measured in the Faculty ofEngineering’s curriculum. Instructors from theDepartments of Biosystems, Civil, Mechanical, andElectrical and Computer Engineering were asked toconsider the presence of four of the 12 CEAB attributesand their subsequent indicators in one engineering coursetaught in one academic year. Each year, four differentattributes were targeted, chosen to reflect both thetraditional/technical and the professional/workplacecompetencies. Data were collected using a selfadministeredchecklist, which evolved over the three yearsof the study in an effort to more clearly define studentattribute competency levels, and to develop a commonlanguage and understanding in regards to the graduateattributes and the process of outcomes-based assessment.This final phase of the study enables us to understand howall 12 of the CEAB graduate attributes are manifest andmeasured across our engineering curricula, to discussour findings within the context of outcomes-basedassessment and accreditation protocols, and to strategizeways to close the loop.


Author(s):  
Jillian Seniuk Cicek ◽  
Sandra Ingram ◽  
Nariman Sepehri

This paper describes the process in the second year of a three year study at the University of Manitoba that looks at how the 12 CEAB graduate attributes are manifested and measured in the engineering curriculum. The four attributes chosen for this year’s study were Problem Analysis, Use of Engineering Tools, Communication Skills, and Ethics and Equity. Nine instructors from each of the Departments of Biosystems, Civil, Electrical and Computer, and Mechanical Engineering were asked to consider the presence of these attributes in one of their engineering courses taught in Fall 2012. The checklist for this study was revised based on the results of the pilot study conducted in 2011-12, and in an effort to begin to define student attribute competency levels and demonstrate outcomes-based assessment. Similar to last year, this study found that the hard skills in engineering were assessed more frequently than the soft skills, and inparticular, there was little assessment evidence of Ethics and Equity. The majority of instructors reported using assignments and reports as evaluation tools, and communicating evaluations to students using numerical marks and written comments. Competency levels were defined in a variety of ways, highlighting the need to establish a common language for assessment. Finally, this paper reports on the challenges observed in the construction and administration of the survey and outlines next steps.


Author(s):  
Jillian Seniuk Cicek ◽  
Sandra Ingram ◽  
Nariman Sepehri

This paper describes the third year of a studyat the University of Manitoba aimed at exploring how theCanadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB)graduate attributes are manifested and measured in theFaculty of Engineering’s curriculum. Instructors from theDepartments of Biosystems, Civil, Electrical andComputer, and Mechanical Engineering were asked toconsider the presence of four attributes and theirsubsequent indicators in one engineering course taught inthe 2013-14 academic year. The attributes were: AKnowledge Base for Engineering, Individual and TeamWork, Impact of Engineering on Society and theEnvironment, and Economics and Project Management.Data were gathered using a self-administered checklist,which was introduced to instructors in a workshopsetting. The checklist has evolved over the three years inan effort to define student attribute competency levels andto create an assessment tool that meets the needs of boththe researchers and the instructors, as we work togetherto examine the graduate attributes in our courses andimplement an outcomes-based assessment protocol. Thedata from this third year give us the ability to report onhow the remaining four CEAB graduate attributes arepresently manifest and measured in our engineeringfaculty, to look for evidence of outcomes-basedassessment, to evaluate the checklist as an assessmenttool, and to reflect on the overall process.


Author(s):  
Donald S. Petkau

At the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Manitoba research has been undertaken to determine the level of student competency in the graduate attributes as set forth by the CEAB accreditation process. This study takes an alternative view and seeks to understand the current industry requirements for a new graduate employee based on the graduate attributes. It consisted of a questionnaire completed by two groups of engineers working in a major energy corporation in the Province of Manitoba. One group consisted of senior engineers with a minimum of 15 years experience while the other was of new graduates with at minimum 18 months of service. The groups were asked to complete a questionnaire on the level of competency they felt was required for new graduates entering the workplace. This paper describes the process and the analysis of the information. Results were compared with an assessment of a new graduate’s competency levels. The information shows that while a student’s competency levels at graduation may be lower than expected they still generally meet the requirements of the workplace. Information also shows that areas of concern are not in the technical areas but rather in the professional skills.


Author(s):  
Anne Parker ◽  
Gary Wang ◽  
Kim Hewlett

In this paper, we will describe how we integrated communication into two capstone design courses in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Manitoba. We will first look briefly at how the stand-alone technical communication course (offered early in the curriculum) serves as a cornerstone because it introduces students to the various genres of engineering communication and emphasizes the importance of communication within the practice of engineering. Integrating communication into courses like the Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering design course (MECH 4860) and the Electrical and Computer Engineering design course (ENG 4600) means that technical and communications specialists work together toward helping senior engineering design students achieve their goal: designing a solution to an industry-based problem and then presenting their design in written, graphical and oral form. To do so, communications specialists become partners in the delivery of the course and in the assessment process. At the same time, the technical specialists can focus on assessing the design itself. Together, we can then evaluate a design according to what engineers must do on the job: solve problems and communicate solutions. The rubrics used to assess written communications are also intended as ways to help students see how each design element (like “project specifications”) is important to the “deliverable,” the report to the client. Finally, we will conclude with some observations about this past year and indicate what we would like to do next year.


Author(s):  
Dario Schor ◽  
Kathryn Marcynuk ◽  
Matthew Sebastian ◽  
Witold Kinsner ◽  
Ken Ferens ◽  
...  

The evolution of a curriculum involves changes at many different levels such as daily changes to reflect questions or areas of interest of a particular class, improvements to an established course based on observations from the professor, or more significant changes to streams of courses at a departmental level, or adaptation to suggested accreditation guidelines such the recent new Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) graduate attributes and outcomes. Most educational institutions have means of collecting data and assessing individual courses or streams of courses based on student performance, course evaluations, and professor assessments. However, since more can be done to gauge the collective effect of changes before students get to their final year capstone project or go into industry, a student-run curriculum forum has been established.This paper presents some of the lessons learned from the bi-annual student-run curriculum forums in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Manitoba. Based on the experience acquired so far, this paper outlines the organization of the curriculum forums, suggestions on guided discussions, ways to present feedback, and means of communicating to students how their feedback is being used to improve the curriculum.


Author(s):  
Bryson Robertson ◽  
Margaret Gwyn ◽  
LillAnne Jackson ◽  
Peter Wild

This paper describes a proposed redesign of the instruction and assessment of the Co-operative (Co-op) Education (or work term) components of the University of Victoria Engineering program. The redesign ensures instruction and assessment of the higher-level Graduate Attributes (GAs), such as individual and teamwork, communication skills, professionalism, impact on society, ethics and equity, economics and project management, and life-long learning, that may not be included in all of the technical courses in a traditional Engineering curriculum. Concurrently, the redesign includes a renewed emphasis on improving the technical writing competency of graduating engineers by: ‘laddering’ student technical writing development; introduction a new grading scheme; increased timeframes for report revisions; and, finally, reducing the number of pedagogically ineffective reports required to graduate.


Author(s):  
Anne Parker ◽  
Kathryn Marcynuk

Abstract – In this paper, we will summarize some of the results, first, from our course syllabi project that we conducted at the University of Manitoba and, secondly, from our study of second-year students’ levels of confidence in a communication class. In the course syllabi project, we discovered that course outlines in our Engineering school gave little information on the assignments expected of students, so much so that students may have found completing them to be difficult. In the second study, we found that students generally lacked confidence in writing tasks, especially at the beginning of term.  These two studies suggest that we need to find a way to guide students in the writing of the assignments that we expect of them if they are to develop the necessary confidence in their ability to write well within a professional context. One way to do that may be the introduction of a portfolio requirement within the Engineering curriculum, A portfolio will serve as a record of students’ ongoing achievements in written assignments throughout their academic programs and, as they compile their portfolios, they can reflect on that achievement and move forward – more communicatively competent and more confident.  


Author(s):  
Rania Al-Hammoud ◽  
Jason Grove ◽  
Andrew Milne ◽  
Mehrdad Pirnia ◽  
Derek Wright ◽  
...  

 Abstract – To address the new process of graduate attributes (GAs) assessment as required by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB), the University of Waterloo (UW) employed six Graduate Attributes Lecturers (GALs) and four Accreditation Assistants (AAs) with a key role of leading the outcomes assessment process in each of the engineering departments. The GALs work collaboratively with each other and their departments to come up with a process of outcomes assessment. The collaboration methods and techniques used by the GALs in developing shared indicators for the common GAs are proving to be highly effective, and have led to significant progress. One of these methods is a structured brainstorming sessions for developing measurable performance indicators for the common GAs. The following paper describes in detail the collaboration methods and techniques used by the GALs and AAs to develop shared indicators for the professional skills GAs. The paper also discusses the factors that proved to be successful in the whole process as well as the challenges faced by the team.  


Author(s):  
Danny D Mann ◽  
Jason Morrison

With the approach of the accreditation visit by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board, it falls to the faculties and departments to interpret, understand and transition into use the latest accreditation criterion on graduate attributes. Over the past two years Biosystems has utilized our small size to perform several preparatory exercises to understand graduate attributes and how they relate to classes offered by our department. This has included several iterations of assessing the level of competency expected from students, an explanation of how attributes are developed by each course, development of learning outcomes, an integration of these ideas into course outlines and a preliminary investigation into how to report these items in a summative and informative manner. This work presents the process followed, observations on how it could be shortened and a brief discussion of the difficulties aligning course-based assessments to curriculum wide needs.


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