2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

A Comparison of ABET Assessment Instruments

Presented at Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI) Technical Session 5

A critical component of the ABET continuous improvement process is demonstrating continuous improvement of the program by assessing student outcomes. The assessment of student outcome achievement levels requires considerable effort by faculty and coordinators. This paper provides the lessons learned from ABET assessment in Morgan State's School of Engineering, which used a variety of assessment instruments, including Microsoft Excel and Google Form spreadsheets, a cloud-based outcome assessment system called Searchlight, and Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) to conduct program student outcome assessment.

The study concluded that Canvas is superior for evaluating student outcome levels of attainment and SearchLight for reporting and continuous improvement. SearchLight seamlessly generated graphs and reports to allow programs to drill down on student performance by course, outcome, and performance indicators. While Searchlight greatly improved the assessment process, it has two major limitations: (1) it is cost prohibitive, and (2) assessment scores were inputted in aggregate at the end of the semester with the guidance of using one or two signature assignments to determine the score. Conversely, Canvas allows faculty to assess and grade simultaneously, thus clearly showing how course-level student outcome levels are obtained from individual assessment instruments. Additionally, conducting assessments in Canvas resulted in higher completion rates.

This paper presents the advantages and disadvantages of each assessment tool and outlines an amended process that utilizes Canvas for assessment and mimics and improves upon the reporting in SearchLight by creating a customized dashboard in PowerBI.

Authors

Dr. Celeste Chavis http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3737-2364 Morgan State University [biography]

Celeste Chavis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Transportation and Urban Infrastructure Studies and the Interim Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Engineering at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. She is a registered professional engineer in the State of Maryland.
Dr. Petronella A. James Morgan State University [biography]

Dr. Petronella James is a faculty member at Morgan State University in both the Electrical Engineering and Transportation departments. Dr. James has experience in accreditation, program assessment and evaluation process and was recently (2016-2019), the accreditation coordinator for the school of Engineering. Her interest in engineering education emphasizes developing new classroom innovations and assessment techniques and supporting student engagement. Her research interests include broadening participation in STEM, equity and diversity, engineering ethics, online engineering pedagogy, program assessment solutions, transportation planning, transportation impact on quality of life issues, and bicycle access. She is a proud Morgan Alum (2011), having earned a Doctorate in Civil Engineering, with a focus on transportation. Dr. Petronella James earned her Doctor of Engineering (Transportation) and Masters of City & Regional Planning. She completed a B.S. Management Studies, at the University of the West Indies (Mona), Jamaica.
Dr. Kofi Nyarko Morgan State University [biography]

Dr. Kofi Nyarko is a Tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Morgan State University. He also serves as Director of the Engineering Visualization Research Laboratory (EVRL). Under his direction, EVRL has acquired and conducted research, in excess of $12M, funded from the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Army Research Laboratory, NASA and Department of Homeland Security along with other funding from Purdue University’s Visual Analytics for Command, Control, and Interoperability Environments (VACCINE), a DHS Center of Excellence. Dr. Nyarko has also worked as an independent Software Engineer with contracts involving computational engineering, scientific/engineering simulation & visualization, visual analytics, complex computer algorithm development, computer network theory, machine learning, mobile software development, and avionic system software development.
Dr. Oludare Adegbola Owolabi, P.E. Morgan State University [biography]

Dr. Oludare Owolabi, a professional engineer in Maryland, joined the Morgan State University faculty in 2010. He is the assistant director of the Center for Advanced Transportation and Infrastructure Engineering Research (CATIER) at Morgan State Universit
Dr. Masud Salimian Morgan State University [biography]

Industrial Engineering faculty

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