Learning and Teaching > Program Assessment > Process to achieve outcomes
Department of Chemical Engineering
Response to COE Student Learning Task Force Questions
February 21, 2005
Contact: Dennis Vigil, vigil@iastate.edu, 294-6438
i. How is the department organized for continuous assessment/improvement of learning?
The department has an ABET coordinator whose primary responsibility is to ensure that the department’s continuous improvement process (see attached diagram) is being carried out.
ii. What processes are used to develop and review program objectives and program/course outcomes?
Attached is a diagram of the department’s continuous improvement process.
iii. What assessment measures are used - direct vs. indirect, qualitative (QL) vs. quantitative (QT), what groups/constituencies?
Direct Measures |
Indirect Measures |
Employer co-op/intern evaluations |
Senior survey (QT) |
In-course rubric-based assessments |
Junior survey (QT) |
OPAL intern/coop assessments |
Alumni survey (QT) |
|
Employer/alumni/student focus groups (QL) |
|
Student course evaluations (QT & QL) |
|
Faculty course evaluations (QL) |
iv. What changes have been made to your program as a result of your assessment feedback process?
- Implemented a dual-advising system to better leverage the strengths of both a faculty advisor (career guidance, elective choices, etc.) and those of a full-time advising coordinator (advising procedures, registration, add/drop, campus resources, record keeping, etc.).
- Combined R-credit sophomore and junior seminars into a single graded 1-credit course.
- Increased student exposure to biological applications of chemical engineering by
(1) adding Biochemistry BBMB 301 as a required course (2) adding a 500-level elective offering - ChE 542 (biomaterials) (3) updated ChE 540 (biomedical engineering), and (4) added a new bioengineering laboratory course (ChE 426L) .
- Added a computational methods course (ChE 310).
- Offered 2 new professional electives – environmental chemodynamics and surface and colloid chemistry.
- Added undergraduate representatives to department committees and formed an undergraduate advisory committee to meet with the department chair
- Incorporated open-ended problem-based methods into the laboratory courses (ChE 325 and ChE 426)
v. Documentation and dissemination of objectives, outcomes, processes, and results?
The ABET 2000 self-study was posted on the department web page for four years. As it has now become outdated, it will be replaced with our 2006 self-study.
vi. What could the college do to help with portfolios, out-year assessments, data analysis and tools, etc.?
- Assistance in compiling OPAL data from internship evaluations.
- Assistance in administering OPAL surveys to employers of our graduates.
- Coordination of a meaningful effort to work with the mathematics department to improve student learning outcomes in math courses required as part of the basic program.
