Fall 2014 Course and Curriculum Assessment Review
UG Committee Evaluation Completed: March 31, 2015
Evaluation Draft Sent to Faculty: May 6, 2015
General Action Items:
1. Review the student feedback on competency proficiency for your Fall 2014 class(es)
(located on the J drive groups\chemeFaculty\competency feedback\Fall 2014). For at
least the three competencies with the greatest number of “No” responses, consider
possible improvements for your course for the Fall 2015 semester. Responsible: ALL
2. For each course you teach, review the action item(s) listed in this document before the
semester begins and respond to them in your course evaluation at the end of the Fall 2015
semester. If you are teaching a course for the first time, you should look at the past
history of action items to provide guidance for your course preparation. Responsible:
ALL
3. Before the students fill out the ABET competency evaluations at the end of the semester,
spend a few minutes in class reviewing the subset of competencies being evaluated. A
simple, brief review of material that the students have covered is likely to improve the
feedback and help them to feel more confident about their preparation. There is no need
to leave the room during this process, which was carry-over from the time when
paper-based instructor evaluations were conducted at the same time. The UG
Committee recommends that the faculty and/or TA’s handle the in-class distribution of
the forms. Responsible: ALL
4. Ongoing Feedback Loop: Competency 6.6 (rationalize units, order of magnitude
estimates/reasonableness) recommended to be assessed throughout the curriculum.
Possible ideas: Teaching Moment in faculty meeting; benchmark assessments in quiz,
exam, etc.; clicker or Poll Everywhere exercises. Responsible: All faculty, with
support and development by the Undergraduate Committee.
Competency Changes:
1. Feedback Loop: The following competency changes should be implemented:
a. ChEn 170: Replace the current competencies with the following five that reflect
the new lab-based course format. Responsible Faculty: UG
Committee/Tommy.
1. Explain fundamental physical principles of chemical engineering observed
through hands-on design projects, in-class activities, and laboratory
experiments. The selected principles will pertain to material and energy
balances, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, chemical reaction engineering,
and separations.
2. Identify and explain the value of the types of problems that chemical
engineers solve.
3. Demonstrate basic skills of problem solving, including engineering design,
effective teamwork, and analysis of economic, environmental, and safety
issues.
4. Accurately interpret and effectively communicate technical information by
written and oral means.
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5. Identify the practices needed to succeed as a chemical engineering student
and decide whether to continue the program.
b. ChEn 436: Change 10.5.3 from “Students will be able to design valves in flow
control applications” to “Students will have a qualitative understanding of the role
of valves in process control.” Responsible: UG Committee/Tommy.
ChEn 170:
1. Ongoing Feedback Loop: Replace the current competencies with the following that
represent the new content of the course. Responsible: Undergraduate Committee
(Tommy and Morris).
1. Explain fundamental physical principles of chemical engineering observed through
hands-on design projects, in-class activities, and laboratory experiments. The
selected principles will pertain to material and energy balances, fluid mechanics, heat
transfer, chemical reaction engineering, and separations.
2. Identify and explain the value of the types of problems that chemical engineers solve.
3. Demonstrate basic skills of problem solving, including engineering design, effective
teamwork, and analysis of economic, environmental, and safety issues.
4. Accurately interpret and effectively communicate technical information by written
and oral means.
5. Identify the practices needed to succeed as a chemical engineering student and decide
whether to continue the program.
2. Feedback Loop: The Undergraduate Committee is concerned that the students are not
receiving a hands-on design experience to help them to become enthused about chemical
engineering as a major. Please add a project, such as the ChE car, to allow them to
experience the major aspects of a project, including performing a safety analysis/review,
some kind of sign-off or approval process to proceed, and setting and reviewing
milestones along the way.
3. Feedback Loop: Emphasize the chemical engineering experience rather than any
particular technical topic: it is acceptable to cover fewer topics to help the students
master a smaller set. This class is not intended to be ChEn 273.
ChEn 191:
1. Closed Feedback Loop: Continue to maintain the balance between interruptions to the
class due to for AIChE meetings or Dean’s lectures while keeping a connection with
both.
ChEn 263:
1. Feedback Loop: The UG Committee recognizes the need to address and agree on
computing platforms in the curriculum. Responsible: Undergraduate Committee,
ChEn 263 instructor, and the rest of the faculty.
2. Feedback Loop: The instructor identified two competencies for which he ranked the
students’ performance at less than a 3 (specifically a 2 for competencies 6.2 and 6.6).
Please formulate a plan to improve these, as well as the other competency (5.4) with a
high percentage of “No” responses from the students. The UG Committee believes that
much of this can be resolved through improved communication and coaching. Please
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discuss strategies with Tommy. Responsible: ChEn 263 instructor, in consultation
with Tommy.
ChEn 311:
No issues.
ChEn 374:
1. Ongoing Feedback Loop: Cover safety valve sizing calculations. Please address what
has been done in this area specifically in your comments next semester. (It looks like the
students are doing OK based on their feedback, but we need to document your actions in
response to this for the department’s records.) Responsible Faculty: 374 instructor.
2. Feedback Loop: The students’ comments indicate a desire to spend more time on nonNewtonian fluids. See if you can do this to improve their self-assessments in this area.
Responsible Faculty: 374 instructor.
ChEn 378:
1. No issues. (Keep up the good work.)
ChEn 391:
1. Ongoing Feedback Loop: UG Committee assessment of ChEn 391 effectiveness and
possible improvements. This UG Committee discussed this and the possible addition of a
291 sophomore seminar at some length, but decided to postpone changes for now.
However, it remains on our agenda for future work. Responsible: UG Committee.
2. One instructor questioned how to directly assess Competency 11.4 (“Students will
develop a sense of professional community with students, faculty, and others.”)
effectively. Some ideas are to base it off of participation/membership in the AIChE
student chapter or their presentations and participating in listening to other team’s
presentations.
ChEn 436:
1. Ongoing Feedback Loop: Despite the rewording, competency 10.5.3 remains a high
“No.” The UG Committee discussed what this competency is intended to mean in
association with Fluid Mechanics (ChEn 374) and Plant Design (ChEn 451). To be in
accord with these classes, we proposed rewording again to read “Students will have a
qualitative understanding of the role of valves in process control.” We plan to implement
this change, but still invite the instructor’s comments. Also, the instructor may want to
provide more information about valve types and uses. Responsible: ChEn 436
instructor.
2. Ongoing Feedback Loop: The scope and content of the course must still be addressed
with concerned constituents. Responsible: ChEn 436 instructor with the UG
Committee, Industrial Advisory Board, and ChEn 374 and 451 instructors.
ChEn 475:
1. Ongoing Feedback Loop: Although our department had previously worked out
acceptable coverage within Stats 201 of regression analysis with the Statistics
Department, it appears to have regressed (pun intended). The UG Committee needs to
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
open this dialogue back up. One faculty member mentioned a positive experience with
using Igor as a statistics tool, rather than having the students use Excel or Mathcad to do
the calculations. Responsible: Undergraduate Committee.
Closed Feedback Loop: Problem based learning will not be expanded at the present
time due to space and human resource constraints.
Ongoing Feedback Loop: Proposals to simplify the competency structure still should be
considered. Responsible: ChEn 475 instructors and UG Committee.
Closed Feedback Loop: The number of heat transfer experiments will remain the same
for now. Responsible: ChEn 475 instructors and UG Committee.
Feedback Loop: English 316 remains a weak point of preparation, with spotty outcomes
depending on the skill of the instructor of a given section. The UG Committee would
like to explore if our department can be assigned sections in which the instruction can be
tailored to our needs or if the skilled Engl 316 instructors can be identified and our
students steered to their sections. This second part of this proposal seems unlikely to
succeed, as often the instructors’ names are not visible/assigned at the time of
registration. Responsible: Undergraduate Committee with Department Chair.
One instructor was concerned that Competency 4.4 (“Students will use a process control
system.”) was not being addressed. The students should be using LabView to control
their experiments and/or completing an assignment on the first day of class to use a
LabView program they have written. This experience should be sufficient to address this
competency.
ChEn 476:
1. Closed Feedback Loop: Student performance on mass transfer (or at least their selfassessment) appears to have improved considerably. Well done and keep it up.
2. Ongoing Feedback Loop: The instructor is seeking a better way to assess simulator
proficiency. The ChEn 451 instructor has some ideas to share, so please contact him.
Responsible: ChEn 476 instructor.
3. Feedback Loop: The UG Committee recommends rewording Competency 10.4.7
(“Students should understand the implications of non-ideal phase behavior (e.g.,
azeotropes and partial miscibility) and the practical constraints of pressure, temperature,
and available utilities on distillation column design.”) to read “Students should be
introduced to the implications of non-ideal phase (e.g., azeotropes and partial miscibility)
and understand the practical constraints of pressure, temperature, and available utilities
on distillation column design.” We invite the instructor’s comment. Responsible:
ChEn 476 instructor.