Scrutinizing Outcome Assessment of Outcome-based Education using Q-OBE in Engineering Education

Abstract

Educational institutions constantly strive to meet accreditation requirements which demand continuous improvement in the quality of education. As a consequence, there has been an active shift in strategizing pedagogical processes towards an outcome-based approach of learning. To effectively implement the Outcome Based Education (OBE) framework in Pakistan, universities need to ensure that the OBE system is fully understandable to the faculty members and students; confirm the implementation of the OBE system according to the guidelines set forth by the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC); and acquire the accreditation of engineering programs, formalized through the Washington Accord and governed by the PEC. A key challenge in implementing OBE is in its assessment process. Education programs have to compute students’ attainment of learning outcomes as measured by multiple courses offered within each program. Q-OBE was implemented to automate the process of assessment and to produce detailed reporting of each student’s aggregated outcomes in a visually effective format. Q-OBE takes the assessment marks as the input and accurately tracks how well the students attain the intended learning outcomes in terms of both Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) and Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs). This study reports on the implementation of Q-OBE in engineering education. The main aim is to show how Q-OBE, a GUI-based software, automates calculating students’ outcomes incorporating both CLOs and PLOs achievements. An attempt has also been made to make explicit the OBE implementation via well-documented and reliable procedures across the institutions.

Keywords: Outcome Based Education (OBE), Assessment and Evaluation, Automation System, Course Learning Outcome (CLO), Program Learning Outcome (PLO)