An Article on the iOBE Software

The work on the development and implementation of the iOBE software has been presented and published in the Regional Conference on Engineering Education (RCEE 2016) on 9 August 2016 in Kuala Lumpur. A digital copy of the article, "Outcomes Assessment and Analysis using iOBE", can be downloaded from here. Other related papers can be downloaded from here.

The abstract of the article reads:

One challenging aspect of the outcome-based accreditation process for engineering programs in Malaysia is in its demand for detailed program assessment to measure the attainments of students’ learning outcomes from multiple perspectives. The main issues are: integrating assessment data across multiple levels and communicating outcomes data effectively. This contribution presents iOBE, a software-based solution to address this need. The package consists of two software modules: iOBE Calculator and iOBE Aggregator, for use at the course and program level, respectively. It is designed for robustness in its computational framework, flexibility in managing data, and simplicity at the users’ end. A case study of actual courses offered at the authors’ institution were done to illustrate the use of the software to assess multiple courses. Two matrices were defined for each course to map how assessment components in the courses addressed the course-level and program-level learning outcomes. Key outputs of the software are: emphases and attainments of outcomes for selected groups of students, populations of students attaining specific outcomes levels, and gaps in students’ performance. The software offers a number of advantages. First, its multi-parameter results offer analysis from various perspectives to asses performance at multiple levels. Second, aggregated data on the attainment of outcomes can assist course instructors and program administrators in recommending directions for improvements. In the case study, the disparity found in the results for a similar cohort of students highlights the need to review the teaching, learning, and assessment practices among these courses. Third, the ease and flexibility in operating the software improves the efficiency of assessing outcomes at the course and program levels, thus reducing unnecessary loads for engineering educators in implementing OBE.

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