2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The chemical engineering program in the Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville has undergone ABET reviews in 2015 and 2021, and has had several department-specific concerns and weakness noted in these reviews. ABET concerns directed at the department in the 2015 visit included the extent to which safety and process hazard was included in courses. An ABET weakness in Criterion 4 was directed at the department in the 2021 visit, based upon the frequent adhoc nature of faculty assessments and the non-systematic manner in which assessment data was collected and utilized for continuous improvement of the curriculum. Therefore, the ABET assessment program for the chemical engineering department at Texas A&M University-Kingsville has undergone a variety of changes relating to coverage of ABET topics and expected student outcomes, as well as the manner in which the ABET assessment program is being implemented.
The department ABET committee undertook the assignment of restructuring our ABET assessment program as a result of the weakness in Criterion 4 continuous improvement identified from the 2021 ABET site visit. First, the manner of student outcomes assessment for the seven ABET student outcomes (SOs) of criterion 3 was extensively revised, and in particular, two to four performance indicators were developed for each of the seven SOs. Additionally, the restructured program now assesses attainment of student outcomes (summative) based on courses in the senior year of the program (summative assessment), while assessments at lower course levels (formative) than the senior year constitute introductory and reinforcement levels of student outcomes (formative assessment). Also, the program has adapted a two-year cycle for completion of SO assessments, to reduce the faculty load in preparing student outcome assessments each semester. The progression of the ABET assessment program for the chemical engineering program at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and the more systematic results now being obtained, is discussed in detail in this Work-in-Progress paper. This description of the overhaul of the assessment program will be beneficial for other engineering departments that will soon go up for ABET re-accreditation, especially with the revised SOs adopted by ABET in 2018, and implemented for ABET reviews in 2019. Several aspects of our revised program may be portable to others experiencing the same challenges as our department has experienced with ABET re-accreditation. As a work in progress paper, the author anticipates constructive comments to our process from other engineering educators.