2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The way quality is defined in higher education (HE) depends on whether the object of assessment are outcomes or processes. Most of the literature on quality assurance in engineering education describes ways of accountability and improvements at the curricular and course levels. However, the literature in quality assurance rarely discusses mechanisms to improve students academic trajectories when learning outcomes are not being achieved at the student level.
This paper reports partial results from implementing a quality assurance model in the School of Industrial Engineering at a Chilean regional university. The holistic quality assurance model integrates traditional definitions of quality when assessing curricular and course elements, and it takes a quality-as-transformation view to assess engineering learning outcomes at the student level. We present six cases of students who participated in different evaluations and interventions as part of a competency training cycle. To gather data, our team used a qualitative approach and interviewed students regarding their academic trajectories and their participation in the quality assurance model. We use Feuerstein´s Mediated Learning Experience theory and Maturanas´ approach to learning as a transformational space as theoretical frameworks to analyze the interviews. In this paper, we draw on these six cases to highlight students’ transformation in becoming industrial engineers when engaging in interventions at the student level. The interventions are based on two Quality Assurance Mechanisms for the undergraduate engineering program: internal learning outcomes evaluations (by professors) and external learning outcomes evaluations (by employers in internships).
Students recognize they were having difficulties when they were invited to participate in the learning outcomes enhancement cycle. Furthermore, they state that their participation promote deep understanding of those difficulties and how to overcome them, with the help of the activities mediators. Students state two main reasons for their difficulties: compromise to their studies and learning practices in higher education.
Students can develop the ability to reflect on their learning experiences and academic trajectories with the help of a mediator. However, quality enhancement at the student level requires more than following indicators such as students’ GPA. Engineering departments should design different improvement cycles for student learning outcomes, depending on the change that is needed, and not only focus on long-term curricular changes