Academic Diversity and Assessment Process for CS Program Accreditation

Arif Bhatti, Irfan Ahmed

College of Computers and Information Technology, Taif University, Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

DOI: 10.4236/ce.2015.68080                

Abstract

Underdeveloped countries have realized that the investment and the improvement in higher education are very important for the progress. This is evident in the number of new universities and institutes of higher learning are established in the last 20 - 30 years. In these universities, administrative processes are well established but academic processes are not. Accreditation bodies such as ABET do not dictate any specific assessment process but want each candidate program to have an assessment process that is reliable and can find out weak points in the program to continuously improve. This paper describes a successful assessment process adopted at College of Computers and Information Technology, Taif University.

Keywords

Assessment, ABET, Evaluation, Learning Outcomes

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Al-Attar, H., & Basim, A.-J. (2010). Outcome Assessments of Petroleum Engineering Program at United Arab Emirates University: A Systematic Approach. Advances in Sustainable Petroleum Engineering Science, 2, 47-68.
[2]	Boud, D. (2010). Assessment 2020: Seven Propositions for Assessment Reform in Higher Education. Sydney: Australian Learning and Teaching Council. www.assessmentfutures.com
[3]	Crawley, E. F., Malmqvist, J., Östlund, S., Brodeur, D. R., & Edström, K. (2014). Rethinking Engineering Education. Cham: Springer International Publishing. http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-319-05561-9
[4]	Fu, J. C., Gourley, M., Park, M.-A., Qian, G., Sung, H., & Turner, T. (2014). Obtaining and Maintaining ABET Accreditation: An Experience-Based Review of the ABET Criteria for Computer Science Programs. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 29, 13-19.
[5]	Harmanani, H. M. (2013). A Bottom-Up Outcome-Based Learning Assessment Process for Accrediting Computing Programs. Proceedings of the International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering. http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Haidar_Harmanani/publication/ 258452571_A_Bottom-Up_Outcome-Based_Learning_Assessment_Process_for_Accrediting_ Computing_Programs/links/02e7e5284cb02e1555000000.pdf
[6]	Helmick, M. T., & Gannod, G. C. (2009). Streamlining and Integration of Miami Three-Tier Outcomes Assessment for Sustainability. 39th IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE ’09, 1-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2009.5350473
[7]	Kezar, A., & Maxey, D. (2014). Student Outcomes Assessment among the New Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Majority. Occasional Paper, No. 21. http://www.learningoutcomeassessment.org/ documents/OP218-29-14.pdf
[8]	Kuh, G. D., Jankowski, N., Ikenberry, S. O., & Kinzie, J. (2014). Knowing What Students Know and Can Do: The Current State of Student Learning Outcomes Assessment in US Colleges and Universities. National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment. www.learningoutcomesassessment.org
[9]	Pierrakos, O., & Watson, H. (2013). A Comprehensive ABET-Focused Assessment Plan Designed to Involve All Program Faculty. Frontiers in Education Conference, 2013 IEEE, 1716-1722. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=6685131
[10]	Reed, J., & Zhang. H. (2013). A Hierarchical Framework for Mapping and Quantitatively Assessing Program and Learning Outcomes. Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, 52-57. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2462481
[11]	Sundararajan, S. (2014). A Strategy for Sustainable Student Outcomes Assessment for a Mechanical Engineering Program That Maximizes Faculty Engagement. Mechanical Engineering Conference Presentations, Papers, and Proceedings. http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/me_conf/54