Title: Assessment of student professional outcomes for continuous improvement

Authors: Mohsen Keshavarz; Seyed Ali Vaziri

Addresses: Educational Planning, Torbat-e Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat-e Heydariyeh 95199-15551, Iran ' Department of Business Management, Neyshabur Branch, Islamic Azad University, Neyshabur, Iran

Abstract: This paper describes a method for the assessment of professional student outcomes (performance-type outcomes or soft skills). The method is based upon classroom group activities, research on modern electrical engineering topics by individual students, classroom presentations of the chosen research topics, final presentations and final technical report writing. Assessment activities include faculty and peer evaluation that measure professional student outcomes of teamwork, life-long learning and communication skills including oral and written communication and presentation skills. The evaluation is performed and the results are discussed with the students and faculty for feedback purposes to establish more relationship between quality assurance and continuous improvement of professional student outcomes crucial for engineers to be successful in their profession.

Keywords: student assessments; evaluation; teamwork; life-long learning; communication skills; student outcomes; professional outcomes; continuous improvement; performance outcomes; soft skills; classroom activities; group activities; electrical engineering; classroom presentations; research topics; final presentations; report writing; technical reports; assessment activities; faculty evaluation; peer evaluation; oral communication; written communication; presentation skills; feedback; quality assurance; engineers; University of Tehran; Iran; universities; higher education; innovation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIIE.2012.052736

International Journal of Innovation in Education, 2012 Vol.1 No.4, pp.324 - 334

Received: 29 Jun 2012
Accepted: 07 Jan 2013
Published online: 26 Mar 2013 *

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