Publications and Conferences

Resources for Further Exploration of Accreditation

Accreditation.org has gathered key periodicals, articles, books and materials to help provide context for the growth of accreditation.  We also provide lists of conferences and other events related to the process of accreditation globally. Some historical documents are also available to illustrate the foundation on which today's accreditation efforts are based.

Articles

Author
Qadir, J., & Shafi, A., & Al-Fuqaha, A., & Taha, A. M., & Yau, K. A., & Ponciano, J., & Hussain, S., & Imran, M. A., & Sheikh Muhammad, S., & Rais, R. N. B., & Rashid, M., & Tan, B. L.

Outcome-based education (OBE) is a paradigm in which instructional and assessment/ evaluation are explicitly designed for ensuring the attainment and mastery of predefined learning outcomes. OBE is now the underlying paradigm followed by global accreditation efforts such as the Washington Accord (ratified in 1989). The shift to OBE is so pronounced that some education experts identify the shift to outcome-based education and accreditation as one of the top 5 major changes of the last 100 years. OBE is starkly different from the previous content-based educational approaches in shifting the aim from covering the content to a student-centric mastery that is driven by exit-outcomes and educational objectives. And while OBE is often criticized for straitjacketing education, and resisted by hesitant faculty members suspecting additional burden, studies show that the OBE movement, on the whole, has helped in improving the educational standards and outcomes by helping ensure proper planning of curriculum and assessment and their alignment with the program objectives and desired outcomes. OBE is also flexible in the sense that it does not dictate the choice of specific education strategies or teaching methods. New OBE schemes have also diversified in response to early misgiving about OBE (related to excessive paperwork, and bean-counting-like auditing) and now admit diverse types of evidence (including qualitative and quantitative, formative and summative, formal and informal assessments). In this paper, we present—as a geographically dispersed set of academics from Pakistan, United Kingdom, United States of America, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia—a global international perspective on OBE accreditation standards, practices, and attitudes. We will trace the historical development leading to the great shift to OBE in recent times and also synthesize insights from our diverse transnational experience in meeting accreditation requirements in different countries.

Date
Publication
2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Publisher
ASEE
Author
A. Samer Ezeldin

The Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) is adopting specific criteria for accrediting engineering programs. It is the responsibility of the institution seeking accreditation of an engineering program to demonstrate clearly that the program meets the following criteria: Students, Program Educational Objectives, Program Outcomes and Assessment, Professional Component, Faculty, Facilities, Institutional Support and Financial Resources, and Program Criteria. This paper outlines the procedures followed in the construction engineering program at the American University in Cairo, to establish Program educational objectives, program outcomes, and courses outcomes to conform to Criteria two and three, Educational Objectives and Program Outcomes. The procedures are based on mapping the university mission and objectives with the Program mission, objectives, and outcomes. The program outcomes are mapped into the courses outcomes that are identified separately for each course.

Date
Publication
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd.

Books

Author
Jane Marie Souza (Editor), Tara A. Rose (Editor)

Colleges and universities struggle to understand precisely what is being asked for by accreditors, and this book answers that question by sharing examples of success reported by schools specifically recommended by accreditors. This compendium gathers examples of assessment practice in twenty-four higher education institutions: twenty-three in the U.S. and one in Australia. All institutions represented in this book were suggested by their accreditor as having an effective assessment approach in one or more of the following assessment focused areas: assessment in the disciplines, co-curricular, course/program/institutional assessment, equity and inclusion, general education, online learning, program review, scholarship of teaching and learning, student learning, or technology. These examples recommended by accrediting agencies makes this a unique contribution to the assessment literature.

The book is organized in four parts. Part One is focused on student learning and assessment and includes ten chapters. The primary focus for Part Two is student learning assessment from a disciplinary perspective and includes four chapters. Part Three has a faculty engagement and assessment focus, and Part Four includes four chapters on institutional effectiveness and assessment, with a focus on strategic planning.

This book is a publication of the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education (AALHE), an organization of practitioners interested in using effective assessment practice to document and improve student learning.

Date
Publisher
Stylus Publishing
ISBN/DOI
978-1642672497
Author
Susan D. Phillips (Editor), Kevin Kinser (Editor)

Accreditation is essential to colleges and universities. Without it, they are unable to participate in federal student aid programs or confer legitimate degrees. In Accreditation on the Edge, Susan D. Phillips and Kevin Kinser bring together the expertise of different stakeholders to illustrate the complexities of the accreditation system and to map the critical issues that must be navigated going forward.

Accreditation can be seen both as an invaluable resource and as a barrier to needed reform. Presenting an array of different perspectives—from accreditors and institutions to policymakers and consumers—the book offers nuanced views on accreditation's importance to higher education and on the potential impact of proposed reforms. The contributors reveal that accreditation is currently on the edge of a policy precipice, as the needs of higher education and the interests of the many stakeholders may well outstrip its ability to perform. But, they argue, accreditation is also on the cutting edge of the transformation of higher education in the twenty-first century.

Intended for policymakers, accreditors, institutional leaders, and scholars in higher education, Accreditation on the Edge offers a comprehensive analysis of the critical issues that accreditation reform needs to address if it is to serve the future of a fast-changing higher education environment.

Date
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN/DOI
978-1421425443

Conferences

The Annual CTI conference focused on quality assurance and accreditation of French engineering education. It signals the launch of the years accreditation efforts and includes a range of meetings and speakers related to accreditation.  The theme for the 2024 event is "Engineer in an uncertain environment," and is focused on both diplomas and skills.  

Sponsor
Commission des titres d’ingénieur (CTI)
Date
-
Location
Palaiseau, Paris, France

The Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE) is a professional organization committed to fostering excellence and innovation in engineering education. The 34th AAEE Annual Conference will be hosted at Griffith University at Gold Coast, and will showcase the latest innovations and advancements as well as future trends in engineering education.  

Sponsor
Australasian Association for Engineering Education
Date
-
Location
Queensland, Australia (and online)

Historical Documents

Author
F.E. Terman

Electrical engineering curricula made their first appearance in the U.S. in the early 1880's as options in physics that aimed to prepare students to enter the new and rapidly growing electrical manufacturing industry. As this industry developed, so did electrical engineering education, and within a decade made a place for itself as an equal among the older engineering departments. The curricula that evolved followed the needs of the industry, and before World War I were concentrated largely on the properties of dc and ac circuits and equipment and associated systems of power distribution. Before World War I, little graduate work was carried on, and what passed in academic institutions for "research" was typically advanced testing. The standard career pattern was to receive a B.S. degree and then obtain a job where one could learn how practical electrical work was done. After World War I, developments in broadcasting and communication led to the appearance of communication options within electrical engineering departments. Concurrently, students having a special interest in teaching or in research were increasingly encouraged to obtain the master's degree. However, the numbers who did so were small, and practically no electrical engineers sought a doctor's degree. For example, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1925 there was only one member of that large faculty who held an earned doctorate, while the background of about half of the faculty consisted of a bachelor's degree plus practical experience. Under these circumstances research performed in academic institutions was in most cases superficial, although here and there some significant work was carried on by an unusual professor. When World War II came along and brought into being such new electrical and electronic techniques such as radar, microwaves, control systems, guided missiles, proximity fuses, etc., the electrical engineers were caught unprepared. As a group they had neither the fundamental knowledge required to think creatively about these new concepts, nor the research experience to carry through. Thus most of the great electrical developments of the war were produced not by engineers, but rather by scientists, particularly physicists who had turned engineers for the duration. In the decade after the war, electrical engineering education went through a complete transformation. Prewar courses were drastically revised. Increased emphasis was placed on fundamentals, including particularly emphasis on physical and mathematical principles underlying electrical engineering. These results were achieved by reducing the time devoted to teaching engineering practice, by eliminating subjects such as surveying that were of little concern to electrical engineering, and by reducing the concentration on 60-cycle power. In addition, master's programs were developed that were direct extensions of the revised bachelor's program, and in time the master's degree became the recommended degree goal of the student who desired to follow a career in technical engineering. Concurrently, the doctor's degree became the objective of those who planned a career in academia or of research in industry, or who wanted training superior to that of their many classmates working for the master's degree. With government funds available, programs of student/faculty research developed on many campuses that were the equal of the research being carried on in the best industrial laboratories. The combined effect of curriculum changes, more students carrying on graduate work, the existence of university research laboratories of the highest caliber with this research led by well-trained faculty aided by doctoral and master's candidates, has completely changed both the character and intellectual level of electrical engineering on the campus. This is illustrated by the fact that in a 1969 survey of a representative group of major high technology firms, 82 percent agreed with the statement that "Engineers now learn enough science and mathematics so that they can adequately fill positions once occupied only by physicists." If another world emergency should arise, the electrical engineers will this time be ready to carry their share of the leadership.

The full article is available via request here or via IEEE for members here.

Date
Publication
Proceedings of the IEEE (Volume: 64, Issue: 9, Sept. 1976)
Publisher
IEEE
ISBN/DOI
10.1109/PROC.1976.10333

In 1923 a development committee was appointed by the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education to answer the question "What can the Society do in a comprehensive way to develop, broaden and enrich engineering education?" The result was the development of a comprehensive survey to look at the engineering education, directed by W.E. Wickenden.  One hundred and fifty college participated along with several national engineering societies and the US Bureau of Education. The executive summary is available here.

Date
Publisher
Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education

Publications

Science and Engineering Ethics is an international multidisciplinary journal dedicated to exploring ethical issues associated with science and engineering, covering professional education, research and practice as well as the effects of technological innovations and research findings on society.

Publisher
Springer

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education publishes papers, reports and research on all aspects of assessment and evaluation within higher education.

Publisher
Society for Research into Higher Education