Curricula Management and ABET Alignment at the Lebanese International University School of Engineering

Abstract

Since 2011, the School of Engineering (SoE) at the Lebanese International University has been actively engaged in the development and constant evolution of engineering programs that are aligned with an assessment protocol aimed at determining how well graduating students achieve intended learning outcomes of their respective programs.  This is all done with the intention of having programs that are fully compatible with the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and in anticipation of future accreditation.

This paper highlights the curriculum management approach that has emerged from the collaboration between the various engineering departments, the development of program students’ outcomes (PSOs) and their indices, and the results from the preliminary outcomes reporting that involves the collection of data in line with best practices, well established key performance indicators and standardized benchmarking in the engineering education community.  All of which has been done as a part of education quality management and continual improvement purposes.

A novel approach was adopted dependent on students’ evaluation of the PSOs.  The evaluation process is used in a feedback loop to enhance the rankings of the PSOs.  Preliminary Results indicate the usefulness of this technique.  More data will be collected in the coming years to be able to establish statistical significance.

Keywords: Curricula management, ABET accreditation, PSO, KPI, benchmarking, academic assessment, reporting, engineering education.