PROGRAM ASSESSMENT REPORT
2003-2004 Academic Year
Master of Science in Engineering
Marshall University
College of Information Technology and Engineering
Division of Engineering
Marshall University
College of Information Technology and Engineering
2004 PROGRAM ASSESSMENT REPORT
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ENGINEERING
I.
Assessment Activities
A.
Program Goals
The College of Information Technology and Engineering (CITE) has developed the
following program objectives for the Master of Science in Engineering (MSE) degree:
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Provide a graduate engineering program with a strong, focused central core, with
opportunities for concentrated study in engineering disciplines important to the region
and that currently include chemical engineering, environmental engineering, and
engineering management.
Provide a program that meets the evolving needs of engineers and their employers in
the region by enhancing technical engineering competence, management and
leadership skills, and sensitivity to legal and ethical issues.
Continuously monitor, evaluate, and revise existing academic programs through
interactions with students and employers.
Employ technology and other mechanisms to increase learning opportunities and
make the program available and accessible at all locations in the region where
sufficient demand exists.
Take a leadership role in fostering the technological and economic development of
the region by providing technological resources and professional development
opportunities to the community and by developing a reputation for high-quality
outcomes.
Provide support for faculty to enhance competence and currency.
Expose students to the managerial, legal, political and ethical issues commonly
associated with the practice of engineering.
These objectives were developed in 1999 and have not changed during the reporting
period. Various members of the professional engineering community and the engineering
faculty continue to review and validate the goals, as discussed below.
B.
Learning Outcomes/Data Collection
1.
Outcome:
Students meet academic standards and achieve acceptable
levels of technical competence.
During the reporting period, CITE’s Engineering Division included five full-time faculty
members, with extensive expertise and experience in the MSE areas of emphasis, and
contracted with several adjunct faculty. The program continued to utilize the talents and
skills of several other Ph.D. engineers in other CITE divisions.
Informal and immediate feedback from working professional graduate students continues
to play a major role in assessing the program’s technical strengths and weaknesses.
Because the majority of our MSE students are employed full-time professionals and parttime evening students, a mixture of both formal and informal evaluation processes
continue to provide the most useful information to the MSE coordinator, division chair,
faculty, and administrators. These include focus group meetings, course evaluations,
informal course-evaluation questions during comprehensive project defenses, and direct
daily communication with students.
As a result of the feedback obtained, program faculty have made adjustments to course
coverage in certain cases, and are continuing to embark on a general review of the
program with an ultimate goal of eliminating and/or adding areas of emphasis that
accurately reflect the current and changing engineering population in the Advantage
Valley, which fluctuates with changes in the regional economy. For instance, the
chemical engineering emphasis is being phased out, due to fact that the number of
chemical engineers in the region is decreasing and there are few chemical students left in
the program. On the other hand, the number of civil and transportation engineers remains
much more stable or is increasing.
Faculty members also remained diligent regarding students’ comprehensive project
defenses made during the last reporting period. Feedback from students and employers
has been positive, and the comprehensive projects continued to be a strong evaluation
tool.
2.
Outcome:
Graduates are valued by employers.
Past focus group meetings have shown that employers valued the practical, applied
approach of the MSE program, and continue to voice a need for additional education in
communication and business. As a result of these comments and informal feedback,
CITE continued to offer courses that have their origins in business, but with engineering
applications, such as a management of technical human resources and organizations
course for the engineering management program that focuses on the management of
technical professionals. Students have also been encouraged to consider courses in
finance and management in CITE’s Technology Management graduate program as
electives.
3.
Outcome:
Graduates can apply management and socio-economic
concepts to the solution of complex engineering problems.
Faculty continued to work toward this outcome through incorporation of new materials
into existing technical courses, and through the addition of and/or increased attention to
supporting courses such as Project Management, Engineering Law, Human Resources,
Operations Management, and an Engineering Management Seminar. The success of this
approach is being assessed primarily through faculty observation of student outcomes
based on written assignments and class discussions. In addition, feedback from students
on faculty evaluations and additional survey questions indicates that they see this area as
one of the program’s primary strengths.
4.
Outcome:
Graduates can effectively use computer technology to solve
engineering problems.
Based on focus group and advisory board input, as well as suggestions from students,
faculty continue to update software applications within MSE courses that make use of
modeling, scheduling, numerical and statistical analysis, and related subjects.
5.
Outcome:
Graduates can function comfortably in leadership roles
and can communicate effectively in written, oral, and team contexts.
These skills are assessed through employer feedback and through a variety of
presentations and group projects in courses such as Project Management and required
technical courses. No changes were made during the reporting period based on this
information.
6.
Outcome:
Graduates are aware of professional, ethical, and legal
responsibilities.
This is outcome is assessed based on student performance in courses such as Engineering
Law, Management of Technical Human Resources and Organizations, and from their
own comments regarding program effectiveness. No changes were made in this area
during the reporting period.
C. Results
The results from informal and formal assessment are as follows:
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Course content changes were made each semester in accordance with changing
student demographic and course evaluations.
A curriculum review process continued to assess the effectiveness and currency of
current areas of emphasis.
A CITE ad hoc assessment committee, chaired by program faculty from the MSE
program, continued to develop a more structured assessment model for all
engineering and computer science, and related programs in the college. The
group has not completed its work, but will develop a model consistent with
university goals and with specialized program assessment requirements mandated
by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.
II.
Plans for the Current Year
CITE will continue to work on a college-wide assessment model, and plans to continue to
evaluate the need for the addition or deletion of areas of emphasis to the MSE degree
program. This work will continue to be impacted by the undergraduate computer science
and engineering programs.
It is expected that many more individuals from the regional engineering community will
become involved in program and curriculum planning.
We will continue to make short-term modifications based on weekly informal assessment
processes and written student comments on semester course evaluations. Working
graduate students tend to go beyond assessing the performance of particular faculty
members and make a variety of insightful and detailed comments regarding course
effectiveness and content during the evaluation process.
III.
Assistance Needed
As always, faculty require more funding and released time in order to pay meaningful
attention to the development of a new assessment plan for CITE. Faculty also continue to
need support for travel to conferences and development activities in order to stay current
in their graduate education abilities and better to contribute to student education.
IV.
Most Important Lesson Learned
As we have reported in the past, many traditional methods of assessing the effectiveness
of engineering degree programs do not work in the context of our adult students who are,
for the most part, employed full-time and pursuing graduate education on a part-time
basis. For a variety of reasons, graduates of the MSE program, most of whom attending
part-time while working, do not remain “attached” to the institution or faculty, and are
less likely to complete survey instruments, etc.
Our most important means of assessing program effectiveness is through daily
interactions with our students, in the form of class requirements or informal feedback that
our students, more than most, are very proactive and aggressive about providing.
Assessment of Student Outcomes: 2003-2004
Program: MS Engineering
Component / Course / Program Level
Student Outcome
1. Academic
standards and
competence
2. Students are
valued by
employers
3. Apply
management and
socio-economic
concepts to
engineering
problems
Person or Office
Responsible
Engineering Chair
and Faculty
Advisors
Assessment Tool
or Approach
Comprehensive
Project; exams and
other class
assignments
Engineering Faculty Focus groups and
other similar
forums; informal
professional
interactions
Engineering Chair
Course-specific
and Faculty
exams and other
evaluation
procedures;
comprehensive
project
Standards/Bench
mark
Faculty experience
and accepted
industry standards
Results/Analysis
Action Taken
Ongoing
identification of
areas of concern
Course additions,
deletions and
modifications
Standard industry
practices and
requirements
Continued approval
of MSE program;
need for more
attention to certain
skills
Remains a strong
part of the MSE
program
Constant updates to
course material and
curriculum
Course standards
and required
learning outcomes;
industry standards
Continue to
emphasize Project
Management and
related skills
4. Effective Use of
Computer
Technology
Engineering Chair
and Faculty
Direct and indirect
student feedback;
employer feedback
Current Standard
Computer Tools for
Engineering
5. Effective
communication and
leadership
Engineering Chair
and Faculty
Comprehensive
Project; student
work in Project
Management and
other courses
6. Aware of
professional,
ethical, and legal
responsibilities
Engineering Chair
and Faculty
Employer feedback
through focus
groups; informal
feedback from PE
Board and other
groups; faculty
observation
Effective oral and
written delivery of
projects based on
accepted
professional
practice/standards
Standard
professional
practice and
applicable laws,
regulations, and
codes of PR
Computer
applications course
continued to aid the
curriculum;
changes/updates to
software in other
courses
Need to continue to
work on this; poses
particular
challenges with
respect to adult
students
Students need
additional focus on
these aspects of
engineering practice
Continued with
computer apps
course development
and add computer
components to other
courses
Course changes;
continued emphasis
on employer
participation in
comprehensive
project
Continued emphasis
on courses such as
Engineering Law
and Management of
Technical Human
Resources and
Organizations;
additions to course
content
Submitted by:
Betsy Dulin, Dean, CITE
William Pierson, Chair, Engineering and Computer Science Division
Eldon Larsen, Coordinator, MSE Degree Program
College of Information Technology and Engineering