Accreditation of Engineering Education: A Comprehensive Assessment Plan

Considerable expansion of technical education has taken place in India. However, the quality of technical education graduates of the country is a matter of concern. To enhance the quality and standard in technical education, NBA accreditation, a process of benchmarking of academic quality of an engineering education program or diploma engineering education program by an accreditation agency, has been introduced. India is a signatory nation of Washington Accord through National Board of Accreditation. Now, accreditation has become compulsory for quality assurance, recognition of graduates globally, recognition by the stakeholders, for branding and for expansion of the program. However, very few programs have been accredited so far in India. Outcome Based Education is the central feature of accreditation which focuses on outcomes. It is a student centered approach which measures student performance or outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills, and attributes. The institutions intending to apply for accreditation are facing difficulty in preparing Self Assessment Report (SAR), especially COPO attainment. The purpose of this paper is to share our experiences of NBA accreditation process, especially assessment of CO and PO attainment. CO attainment is solely measured by direct measurement methods (internal and external assessments). Program Outcome attainment is calculated by both direct attainment method and indirect attainment method (various surveys). Various boards and committees formed for the preparation for accreditation are also outlined in this paper. The accreditation of two programs of our institute by NBA is an important indication of the appropriateness of the methods applied to achieve this goal. Since NBA is a member of the Washington Accord, this study may help not only local readers but also international readers having similar accreditation systems.


I. INTRODUCTION
In the era of globalization, nature of jobs and workplaces are changing at very fast pace. The globalization has provided opportunities for the transmission of technology, skills, knowledge, people, money, goods and services, values, and ideas across the borders. Engineering education has become an integral part of this globalization because engineers play very important role in the socio-economic development of any country. Considerable expansion of technical education has taken place in India and now it is emerging as globalised hub. The country has become the third largest higher education system in the world, after China and the US [1]. However, the quality of higher education and technical education graduates of the country is matter of concern. The new Annual" National Employability Survey 2019" report by Aspiring Minds reveals that more than 80% engineers are unemployable for any job in the knowledge economy [2]. Employability of engineering graduates is the great challenge before the nation. This calls for systemic long term changes in higher education in India. To enhance the quality and standard in technical education various quality assurance and professional accreditation processes have been introduced. Accreditation is a process of benchmarking of academic quality of a higher education institution, engineering education program or diploma engineering education program by an accreditation agency [3]. Accreditation is "a quality assurance scheme wherein a certification of assessment given with a validity for a stated period of time and the recognition accorded to an educational institution that meets commonly accepted standards of quality or satisfies criteria laid down by a competent agency" [1]. Accreditation is compulsory for quality assurance, recognition of graduates globally, recognition by the stakeholders and for Branding [4]. India is a signatory nation of Washington Accord through National Board of Accreditation (NBA) [5]. The Washington Accord is an international agreement among bodies responsible for accrediting undergraduate engineering degree programs. It recognizes the substantial equivalency of programs accredited by bodies that are its signatory and recommends that graduates of programs accredited by any of the signatory bodies be recognized mutually as having met the academic requirements for entry to the practice of engineering in the area of their jurisdiction. The Washington Accord set the criteria, policies and procedures for accrediting engineering academic programs [5]. The NBA became a provisional member of the Washington Accord in 2007 and was given the status of permanent signatory on 13th June 2014[1, 6]. Signatory status is subject to the condition that only programs with Tier I institutions accredited by NBA are eligible for mutual recognition under the Washington Accord. The accreditation methods used by the Washington Accord signatory countries are considered to be the best developed and most well respected systems for the accreditation of engineering education in the world [7,8]. The Indian Quality Assessment and Accreditation System for engineering education started with the setting up of National Board of Accreditation (NBA) in 1994, by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE )[1]. The NBA periodically conducts evaluation of technical institutions or programs on the basis of guidelines, norms and standards specified by it its committees and council. It provides the quality benchmarks targeted at global and national stockpile of human capital in all fields of technical education [4].
Outcome Based Education (OBE) is the central feature of accreditation which focuses on outcomes. It is a student centered approach which measures student performance or outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills, and attributes [9]. Outcomes should be observable and measurable [10]. Outcome based accreditation is helpful to prepare global engineers/ diploma engineers who will have to solve unknown problems and challenges and cope with the demands of the rapidly changing workplace. The OBE implementation in an institute requires the restructuring and reshaping of the educational programs, courses, curriculum, assessment techniques and reporting system according to outcomes [11,12]. Clarity of focus, expanded opportunity, high expectations and design down are the four main principles of OBE [13]. In today's globalised world, demand for accreditation is increasing day by day and for better understanding of accreditation many research papers have been published [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. In India, NBA accreditation is compulsory for expansion of any engineering program by a technical institution. S.V. Polytechnic College Bhopal, one of the primer technical education institutes, was established by Government of Madhya Pradesh in 1953. The institute is affiliated to State Technological University RGPV Bhopal. The Diploma in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering programs has been accredited by NBA for three years in November 2019. The purpose of this paper is to share our experiences of NBA Accreditation process which may be useful for other institutions intending to apply. However, since NBA is a member of the Washington Accord, this study may help not only local readers but also international readers having similar accreditation systems. Assessment is one or more processes that identify, collect, and prepare data to evaluate the achievement of Program Outcomes (PO) and Program Educational Objectives (PEO) [24]. The NBA program assessments are performed by independent assessors and the assessments are performed according to 9 evaluation criteria and given in Table-I [1]. Governance, institutional support and financial 75 Total 1000 Each criterion is assessed separately and has its own requirements. Among these, criterion-3(course outcomes and program outcomes) is the most important one, since assessors inspect these measures more seriously according to our observations. Consequently, these two measures are focused in this work.

II. ORGANIZATION FOR THE ACCREDITATION PROCESS
As stated earlier, OBE is the soul of accreditation which requires the restructuring and reshaping of the educational programs, courses, curriculum, and assessment techniques and reporting system according to outcomes. Our institute started preparation for accreditation in 2016 and applied for accreditation in 2018. Entire institution was involved in the process and a number of committees and boards were established at institution as well as department level. The various committees formed in the Institute are shown in Fig.1.

A. Committees at Institute Level
The details of Institute level committees, their missions and roles in the NBA accreditation process are given in Table-II.

B. Committees at Department Level
The various committees formed at department level and their roles are given below: i. Course Coordinator Either one of the senior faculty member who teaches common courses (if any) otherwise individual faculty will the course coordinator. The main functions of course coordinator are to :  Monitor and review the activities related to attainment of course outcome.  Prepare course plan, with topic wise teaching methodologies for each course.  Deliver course contents  Assess the attainment of COs and develop assessment tools like question papers, Quiz and Rubrics, etc. for assigned courses.  Maintain course file for assigned courses ii.
Program Coordinator Usually HOD is the Program Coordinator. The main functions of Program Coordinator are to :  Interact and maintains liaison with key stake holders, students, faculty, Department Head and employer.  Monitor and review the activities of each year in program independently with course coordinators.  Schedule program work plan in accordance with specifications of program objectives and outcomes.  Oversee daily operations and coordinates activities of programs with interrelated activities of other programs, departments or staff to ensure optimum efficiency and compliance with appropriate policies and specifications given by HODs.  Conduct and interpret various surveys required to asses POs and COs.

iii. Program Assessment Committee (PAC)
Program Assessment Committee consists of Program Coordinator, and faculty representatives. PAC is chaired by Program Coordinator and main functions of PAC are to:  Monitor attainment of POs and PEOs.  Evaluate program effectiveness and proposes necessary changes for continuous improvement.  Prepare periodic reports/records on program activities, progress status or other special reports for management and key stake holders.  Motivate the faculty and students towards attending workshops, developing projects, working models, paper publication and research.  Interact with students, faculty, program coordinator, module coordinator and outside/ community agencies (through their representation) in facilitating program educational objectives.

iv. Departmental Advisory Board (DAB)
DAB consists of HOD, program coordinators and the representative of key stake holders. DAB is chaired by HOD and functions of DAB are to: Receive the report of the PAC and monitor the progress of the program.  Develop and recommend new or revised program educational objectives.

III.PROGRAM OUTCOMES (POs)
Program

VI. CO-PO MAPPING
After defining COs, they are mapped with POs. The CO-PO mapping has been done with correlation levels 1, 2, 3 and "--" for no correlation as defined below: 1. Slightly (Low) 2. Moderately (Medium) 3. Substantially (High) --. no correlation As an example CO-PO mapping for Chemistry (103) is given in Table IV. Hence, all CO-PO matrices from I to VI semester are developed (Table-V).
International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE) ISSN: 2278-3075, Volume-9 Issue-4, February 2020 VII. CO ATTAINMENT CO attainment is solely measured by direct measurement methods [1,24,25,26]. It may be in terms of student's performance in external assessments ie. University examination and student's performance in internal assessments such as term work (tutorials, assignments, quizes etc), lab work (laboratory tests, oral examinations, quizzes etc.), progressive tests, project evaluation, project presentations etc. The flow chart of Course Outcome Assessment is given in Fig.2.   Fig.2. Flow chart of course outcome assessment University or Board provides teaching scheme for each semester, which includes the components of assessment tools viz. theory exam, practical exam, progressive tests, lab work and term work along with the maximum marks allotted for each component. As an example distribution of marks by RGPV, Bhopal has been shown in Table-  With the help of Table-V, percentage distribution of marks for external assessment and internal assessment can be calculated, which are shown in Table VI and Table VII. The percentage of CO from assessment tools is designed accordingly by course coordinator considering the weightage distribution of marks allotted in teaching scheme for the course. For example percentage of CO for different assessment tools is assigned for each specified CO for Chemistry is shown in Table VIII. The overall percentage distribution of marks for direct assessment methods as per examination scheme is shown in Table V, assuming 70% weightage to University examination (TE and PE) and 30% weightage to Internal Assessment (TW, LW and PT ). This measurement method is further used to calculate final CO attainment. Based on the % CO distribution of marks, as per teaching and examination scheme of University, CO attainment can be obtained. For example the final CO attainment using Table-V, Table-VI, Table-VII and Table-VIII

3(Average Internal Attainment )
As per Table-VI and Table- Table-VII and Table-   Here, M means met -when student scores 50% marks or more =1 N means not met -when student scores less than 50% marks =0 The % CO attainment for Chemistry course is calculated from the above normalized formula by using marks scored by the entire class in Theory exam, Practical exam, Term work, Lab work and Progressive test as shown in Table-IX,  Table-X and Table-XI. To measure the external attainment level of each CO, it is compared with 40% as the minimum marks for completion of course is 40, while for internal assessment attainment level of each course outcome, it is compared with 50%.
PO attainment through direct assessment is depicted in the industries for the performance of students, those who has undergone vocational/summer training and internship in the industries as well as who got the jobs in the industries.

Alumni Feedback
To Collect variety of information about program satisfaction and success from Alumni.

Employer/ Industry Feedback
To Provide information about our diploma students, skills and capability.

Student Exit Survey
To assess the success of program through feedback and discussions done to achieve the POs.
In the feedback/survey form, responses are noted as strongly agree, agree, average and convert it into score based on 1-3 scale. As an example Alumni feedback form is given here:

Alumni Feedback Form
Dear Alumni, It is our pleasure to note that you have successfully completed your diploma from this institute .We hope that you have assimilated all that is required for your successful career. Kindly give your response on the following outcomes you have gained through your three year diploma program. During your job, have you been able to: Surveys from the stakeholders reflect on student's overall learning during the program. They assess opinions about the diploma holder's knowledge or skills. PAC collects the feedback on POs from the Alumni, Employer and Industry, then analyses the collected data. If the assessment meets the performance targets the outcome is attained. Otherwise, corrective actions are initiated. The outline of indirect attainment processes of assessment, evaluation and documentation is done by PA in regular interval.

IX. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
OBE is central to NBA accreditation. PO attainment is an important tool in OBE which provides a yardstick to determine how far a program has been successful. The PO attainment is thoroughly checked by NBA expert team during visit.

S. No Outcome Strongly agree
Agree Average

1.
Apply knowledge of basic mathematics, science and engineering fundamentals and engineering specialization to solve the engineering problems.

2.
Identify and analyse well-defined engineering problems using codified standard methods.

3.
Design solutions for well-defined technical problems and assist with the design of systems components or processes to meet specified needs.

4.
Apply modern engineering tools and appropriate technique to conduct standard tests and measurements.

5.
Apply appropriate technology in context of society, sustainability, environment and ethical practices. 6.
Use engineering management principles individually, as a team member or a leader to manage projects and effectively communicate about well-defined engineering activities.

7.
Ability to analyse individual needs and engage in updating in the context of technological changes.

8.
Plan and supervise maintenance activities of mechanical engineering instrument and machines.

9.
Use simple CAD/CAM software for mechanical engineering applications in drafting, design and manufacturing.

10.
Manage mechanical engineering processes by selecting and scheduling relevant equipment, quality control techniques, and operational parameters and by guiding subordinate workforce. Process followed for overall PO attainment is shown in Fig.5.  As stated earlier, If PO attainment is not achieved, course coordinator has to specify which COs were not achieved successfully and action plan to achieve them next year.

X. CONCLUSION
OBE has become a central feature in accreditation of the technical education programs. Implementation of OBE in any educational institute require to first determine the desired outcome, then plan content delivery, assessment procedure and facilities required. This paper provides an appropriate method for calculating the attainment of Course outcome and program outcomes in line with the guideline outlined by NBA. Sample calculation for CO-PO attainment is given in the paper. The direct assessment method (internal and external exam result) is used for the CO attainment. PO attainment is calculated by both direct assessment method and indirect assessment method (various surveys). The Program outcome assessment matrix indicates which course may be modified, and course assessment matrix for each course indicates areas that need to strengthen. Hence, OBE is an important instrument to assess student's performance through their regular assessment by using different assessment tools/methods. The accreditation of two programs of our institute by NBA is an important indication of the appropriateness of the methods applied to achieve this goal. We hope that our experiences will help the new programs for accreditation and provide a clear idea for calculating their CO attainment and PO attainments as well as monitoring the students' performance. In view of the authors, it takes around 3 years to prepare to apply for NBA accreditation. Involvement of entire institution and true team work are vital to attain success in NBA accreditation. Literature survey suggests that there is a limited research on NBA accreditation in India. Further scope for research includes strategies for continuous improvement, role of faculty in NBA accreditation, role of stake holders, feedback system, industry institute interaction, mentoring system, strategies to enhance student performance, implementation of OBE and reorientation of curriculum from OBE point of view etc.