2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Management of course outline data and assessment metrics is a central tenet of the continuous quality improvement (CQI) plan for engineering and engineering technology programs accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). This paper presents a work-in-progress description and assessment of a recent method (implemented in Fall 2020) for storing, accessing, and managing data used for course outline and assessment metrics within the engineering technology programs at the University of Dayton. Systemic shortcomings in the prior method where course outline and instructor assessment data were managed using uncontrolled Microsoft Word documents and templates on a departmental network drive was a motivating factor to implement a new data management method. These shortcomings included: 1) lack of access to the network drive by adjunct faculty members, 2) documents which were uncontrolled and were without a formal revision record, and 3) data storage methods which lacked future capability for efficient/timely data analysis and report automation. Once it was determined that an improved method was needed, a variety of options were investigated before the department settled upon a solution utilizing modern software tools in the Google Suite. Full-time faculty began using the newly developed data management tool in Fall 2020; a revised version of the tool was adopted in Fall 2022 and used by the department faculty at large. Beyond simply offering a more robust course outline data and assessment metric storage method, the presented paper demonstrates how the current method can allow for a more efficient and responsive CQI process. One of the stated goals in the development of the new tool was to provide instructor generated feedback directly to the programs CQI reports (without the need for transcription or copy/paste). This tool will allow reports to be generated directly from the source material in a timely manner, enabling more efficient and timelier CQI program meetings. Furthermore, because of the dynamic nature of the data management tool, new and refined reports for use in the CQI process and accreditation review are possible and part of an ongoing development.