If you haven’t gone through the Canadian engineering accreditation process recently, you’re in for a bit of a surprise. Not only will you have to demonstrate how your students are meeting the twelve graduate attributes that every new engineer should have, but you will also have to show how you are gathering and responding to data collected around your key indicators.
Over the next little while, I’ll share some resources and ideas that have helped make the process a little simpler for our faculty. I’ll be breaking it into three main sections:
- Curriculum
- Graduate Attributes and Key Indicators
- Continual Improvement
In the Curriculum section we’ll look at some of the checks and balances you’ll need to consider, the process of reviewing (or defining) your program’s learning outcomes, and how to map the curriculum.
In the Graduate Attributes section we’ll discuss how the 12 attributes can be shaped to your program. We’ll look at identifying comprehensive and repeatable indicators for each graduate attribute and the process for doing a gap analysis to ensure comprehensive coverage of each attribute. We’ll also examine ways to track and ensure students are meeting the key indicators.
The graduate attribute data we gather provides us with one element required for the ongoing reflection into aspects of a program. In the Continual Improvement section we will look at how we can use this and other valuable feedback to ensure our programs continue to grow while maintaining the required level of rigour.
Stay tuned for the first of the ten steps …
Accreditation Matters 