This article examines the current state of assessment in engineering education in the United States as reflected in the Journal of Engineering Education. We begin with a brief review of recent developments in the assessment of engineering education and the events that have inspired change. Next, we explore assessment methodologies that have been used repeatedly in the evaluation of engineering courses, curricula, and research investigations as well as some methods that have not been used extensively but are likely to be informative. We conclude with a discussion of the importance of establishing collaborations between researchers in engineering education and educational research. Throughout this paper we highlight examples of sound and rigorous assessments in engineering education.

Assessment in Engineering Education: Evolution, Approaches and Future Collaborations

Background
Prior efforts have built a knowledge base of effective undergraduate STEM pedagogies, yet rates of implementation remain low. Theories from higher education, management, communication, and other fields can inform change efforts but remain largely inaccessible to STEM education leaders, who are just beginning to view change as a scholarly endeavor informed by the research literature.

Purpose
This article describes the goals, assumptions, and underlying logic of selected change strategies with potential relevance to STEM higher education settings for a target audience of change agents, leaders, and researchers.

Scope/Method
This review is organized according to the Four Categories of Change Strategies model developed by Henderson, Beach, and Finkelstein (2011). We describe eight strategies of potential practical relevance to STEM education change efforts (two from each category). For each change strategy, we present a summary with key references, discuss their applicability to STEM higher education, provide a STEM education example, and discuss implications for change efforts and research.

Conclusions
Change agents are guided, often implicitly, by a single change strategy. These eight strategies will expand the repertoire of change agents by helping them consider change from a greater diversity of perspectives. Change agents can use these descriptions to design more robust change efforts. Improvements in the knowledge and theory base underlying change strategies will occur when change agents situate their writing about change initiatives using shared models, such as the one presented in this article, to make their underlying assumptions about change more explicit.

Increasing the Use of Evidence-Based Teaching in STEM Higher Education: A Comparison of Eight Change Strategies

Background
ABET-accredited engineering programs must help students develop specific outcomes (i.e., competencies). Faculty must determine the relative emphasis among the competencies. Yet, information is sparse about the relative importance of each competency for professional practice.

Purpose (Hypothesis)
This study synthesizes opinions of engineering graduates about which competencies are important for professional practice.

Design/Method
A survey asked undergraduate alumni of a large public university in the Midwest to rate the importance of the ABET competencies in their professional experience. Responses included descriptions of education, post-graduate work environment, and demographics. Protected, post-hoc, all-pairwise multiple comparisons determined patterns in the importance ratings, for the aggregate, and for descriptive subgroups.

Results
The lowest-rated competency's mean rating was 3.3 out of 5. Graduates of 11 engineering majors rated a top cluster of competencies (teamwork, communication, data analysis, and problem solving) significantly higher than a bottom cluster (contemporary issues, design of experiments, and understanding the impact of one's work). Importance ratings of five other competencies fell in an intermediate cluster in which importance was statistically tied to either the top or bottom cluster, depending on work environment or academic discipline-not demographics. The clusters were stable over time, that is, over seven survey administrations (1999–2005), years since graduation (0, 2, 6 & 10), and graduation year (1989–2003).

Conclusions
Graduates across engineering disciplines share a pattern of importance for professional practice among the ABET competencies that is statistically significant, consistent across demographic variables, and stable over time. This pattern can inform faculty decisions about curriculum emphasis within and across engineering disciplines.

Which ABET Competencies Do Engineering Graduates Find Most Important in their Work

In this paper, five major shifts in engineering education are identified. During the engineering science revo- lution, curricula moved from hands-on practice to mathemat- ical modeling and scientific analyses. The first shift was initiated by engineering faculty members from Europe; accel- erated during World War II, when physicists contributed mul- tiple engineering breakthroughs; codified in the Grinter report; and kick-started by Sputnik. Did accreditation hinder curricular innovations? Were engineering graduates ready for practice? Spurred by these questions, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) required engineering programs to formulate outcomes, systematically assess achievement, and continuously improve student learning. The last three shifts are in progress. Since the engineering science revolution may have marginalized design, a distinctive feature of engineering, faculty members refocused attention on cap- stone and first-year engineering design courses. However, this third shift has not affected the two years in between. Fourth, research on learning and education continues to influence engineering education. Examples include learning outcomes and teaching approaches, such as cooperative learning and inquiry that increase student engagement. In shift five, tech- nologies (e.g., the Internet, intelligent tutors, personal compu- ters, and simulations) have been predicted to transform education for over 50 years; however, broad transformation has not yet been observed. Together, these five shifts characterize changes in engineering education over the past 100 years.

Five Major Shifts in 100 Years of Engineering Education The authors discuss what has reshaped, or is currently reshaping, engineering education over the past 100 years up until the current emphasis on design, learning, and social-behavioral sciences research and the role of technology.

In this paper, five major shifts in engineering education are identified. During the engineering science revolution, curricula moved from hands-on practice to mathematical modeling and scientific analyses. The first shift was initiated by engineering faculty members from Europe; accelerated during World War II, when physicists contributed multiple engineering breakthroughs; codified in the Grinter report; and kick-started by Sputnik. Did accreditation hinder curricular innovations? Were engineering graduates ready for practice? Spurred by these questions, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) required engineering programs to formulate outcomes, systematically assess achievement, and continuously improve student learning. The last three shifts are in progress. Since the engineering science revolution may have marginalized design, a distinctive feature of engineering, faculty members refocused attention on capstone and first-year engineering design courses. However, this third shift has not affected the two years in between. Fourth, research on learning and education continues to influence engineering education. Examples include learning outcomes and teaching approaches, such as cooperative learning and inquiry that increase student engagement. In shift five, technologies (e.g., the Internet, intelligent tutors, personal computers, and simulations) have been predicted to transform education for over 50 years; however, broad transformation has not yet been observed. Together, these five shifts characterize changes in engineering education over the past 100 years.

Five Major Shifts in 100 Years of Engineering Education

For more than 70 years, accreditation has provided quality control for engineering education in the United States, seeking to assure that graduates of accredited programs are prepared for professional practice. However, by the 1980s, the accreditation criteria had become increasingly prescriptive, inhibiting development of innovative programs to reflect changing needs of practice. In response, ABET (formerly Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) and its stakeholders developed revised criteria, Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC2000), which emphasize learning outcomes, assessment, and continuous improvement rather than detailed curricular specifications. These criteria, together with international agreements among engineering accrediting bodies, facilitate mobility of an increasingly global profession. To assess the utility of the new criteria, ABET has commissioned a multiyear study of the impact of EC2000 on U.S. engineering education. Initial results from the study are encouraging and, as more results emerge, should support continuous improvement of the accreditation process, itself.

http://chem.engr.utc.edu/asee/2005/jee-prados-paper.pdf

Quality Assurance of Engineering Education through Accreditation: The Impact of Engineering Criteria 2000 and Its Global Influence

An experimental technique for the determination of velocity distributions in two-dimensional laminar flow is described. The method utilizes the optical interference patterns observed in flowing doubly refracting liquids when viewed by transmitted polarized light. The fluid shear-stress distribution may be determined from these interference patterns by methods similar to those employed in solid photoelasticity. Methods are presented for the calculation of velocity distributions from the observed stress distributions. Experiments are described in which the technique was applied to determine velocity profiles in parallel-walled, converging and diverging channels and for flow about a cylindrical obstacle. The doubly-refracting liquids employed were aqueous solutions of an organic dye. Independent experimental checks were obtained in most instances, and these are in satisfactory agreement with the calculated results.

Two-dimensional laminar-flow analysis, utilizing a doubly refracting liquid

The unsteady state behavior of a packed-column gas absorber was investigated by comparing the results of experimental frequency response tests with theoretical frequency responses determined for several postulated flow models.

Carbon dioxide was absorbed in water from air-carbon dioxide mixtures in a 6-in. I.D. Pyrex pipe, packed to a depth of 5.12 ft. with 5/8-in. ceramic Raschig rings. A sinusoidal variation in inlet gas-phase carbon dioxide concentration was produced by a specially designed linear valve, driven at frequencies of 0.1 to 15 cycles/min. Inlet and outlet gas-phase concentration sinusoids were measured continuously with specially designed high-speed thermal conductivity cells. Liquid flows from 0 to 222 lb. moles/hr.-sq. ft. and gas flows from 1 to 20 lb. moles/hr.-sq. ft. were investigated. Separate frequency response tests on inlet and outlet mock-ups permitted determination of the frequency response of the packing section alone. Results were expressed graphically as Bode plots.

Theoretical frequency response curves were calculated based on three different flow models: no axial mixing, axial mixing described by a series of perfectly mixed cells, and axial mixing described by an effective longitudinal diffusivity. Neither of the three models gave completely satisfactory agreement with the experimental magnitude-ratio curves above about 1 cycle/min., although the slug flow model appeared somewhat better than the others. The theoretical phase-shift curves were almost indistinguishable for the three models and agreed well with the experimental curves.

The dynamics of a packed gas absorber by frequency response analysis

The frequency response analysis of a wetted wall adiabatic humidifier

Aqueous suspensions of Milling Yellow dye have been found to lie useful for engineering flaw studies by employing established birefringent techniques. In the present work, the basic birefringent and rheologic properties of Milling Yellow suspensions wore measured for a range of deformation rates important to the engineering applications. A concentric-cylinder polariscope was used to measure the amount of birefringence and the angle of extinction for ten Milling Yellow suspensions at 25°C. varying in concentration from 1.25 to 1.46% dye by weight. The optical properties exhibited by these suspensions are similar to those of a number of colloidal suspensions as reported by past investigators. Rheologic data for Milling Yellow suspensions in the same concentration range were measured at 25°C. for deformation rates of 50–10 sec.−1 by means of a capillary viscometer. Over the complete range of deformation rates the rheologic data are accurately described with the Powell-Eyring relationship for pseudo-plastic materials.

John W. Prados

Papers

Quality Assurance of Engineering Education through Accreditation: The Impact of Engineering Criteria 2000 and Its Global Influence

Two-dimensional laminar-flow analysis, utilizing a doubly refracting liquid

The dynamics of a packed gas absorber by frequency response analysis

The frequency response analysis of a wetted wall adiabatic humidifier

Birefringent and rheologic properties of milling yellow suspensions