iOBE Workshop @ Physics USM

An iOBE workshop titled "Automating PO Calculation & Implementing CQI" was conducted this morning, Thursday 16/3/2023, for all the lecturers at the School of Physics USM. This is the second iOBE workshop conducted there; the first one was in 13 October 2017. This time, the need to have an automated system to compute PO attainments has become more urgent due to the requirement from the accreditation exercise.

This session briefly recapped the essence of OBE assessment from the previous workshop. Afterward, the session focused on presenting and discussing on the techniques of computing and interpreting the output plots produced by iOBE at the course and program levels. The CQI process was briefly discussed near the end of the workshop. A few Physics lecturers were able to download the software and successfully run it with real data from their own courses, which took only a few minutes to prepare the input file and a few seconds to run.

Many thanks to the Dean, Prof. Dr. Abdul Razak, for this invitation, and to the Academic Management Team lead by the Academic Deputy Dean, Associate Professor Dr. Iskandar, for hosting this workshop. Special thanks go to Dr. Husni for successfully running the data for his course in-situ and sharing the outcomes produced by the iOBE software during the workshop. Many thanks also to those who ask questions that provided fruitful and deeper insights into our discussions.

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iOBE Workshop @ CS USM

An iOBE workshop titled "Interpreting iOBE Data & Building CQI Awareness" was conducted this morning, Wednesday 3/3/2023, for all the lecturers at the School of Computer Sciences (CS) USM. This is the second iOBE workshop conducted there at CS; the first one was in 15 March 2021. In between these times, CS lecturers have used the iOBE software to analyze their course data within the past 3-4 semesters.

This session briefly recapped the essence of OBE assessment and the process of computing outcomes data produced by iOBE. The main focus of the workshop was to explain the techniques of interpreting the output plots produced by iOBE. The CQI process was briefly presented afterward. At the end of the workshop, a set of 10 courses was quickly gathered and successfully computed using iOBE to produce group-level data to demonstrate its capabilities of aggregating data from multiple courses to evaluate students performance at the course and program levels.

Many thanks to the Dean of CS, Prof. Dato' Dr. Bahari, for this invitation, and to the Academic Management Team lead by the Academic Deputy Dean, Associate Professor Dr. Nurul Hashimah, for hosting this workshop. Special thanks go to Dr. Anusha for coordinating this workshop and Pn. Fatin for the help in running the iOBE software during the workshop.

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iOBE Workshop @ SoM USM

An iOBE seminar titled "Computing OBE Data & Implementing CQI" was conducted last week on Friday, 3/3/2023, for the Academic Management Team at the School of Management (SoM) USM.

This session explained the processes of computing the attainment of Learning Outcomes for individual students and groups of students at the course and program levels. The iOBE software was then introduced and demonstrated as a solution to automate the computation of these outcomes. The simulations of sample cases took a few seconds to run inside the iOBE software to produce results in terms of data tables, bar charts of Program Outcomes (POs), and spiderwebs of POs for individual students.

Many thanks to the Dean of SoM, Prof. Dr. Noor Hazlina, for this invitation, and to the Academic Management Team lead by the Academic Deputy Dean, Associate Professor Dr. Siti Rohaida, for hosting this seminar.

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iOBE Workshop @ Arts USM

An iOBE workshop "Assessing Student Outcomes Automatically Using iOBE" has recently been conducted online at the School of The Arts USM on 18 May 2022, through the Webex Platform.

Many thanks to Associate Professor Dr Sarena, the Dean of the School, for this invitation for me to conduct the workshop. Many thanks as well to the Academic Team headed by Dr Muhammad Khizal for organizing the workshop, and to the OBE Team headed by Dr. Jasni for the detailed discussions during and after the workshop.

This session explained the rationale and techniques of computing the attainment of Course Learning Outcomes (CLO) for individual students and groups of students at the course and program levels, and introduced the iOBE software as a solution to automate the computation of these outcomes.

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Upgrade: iOBE v6.2

The iOBE software has been upgraded into iOBE v6.2. The new version of the software, its compiler, and relevant documentations can be downloaded below. The full version of the iOBE software is released as a free software to the public.

1. iOBE Software Version 6.2. Update 15/5/2022: the sample input files have been updated to improve the textual label inside those files, without affecting the software's data processing.
2. Matlab Runtime Compiler R2021a (9.10) for 64-bit Windows
3. Documentations

The main upgrade is:

1. Consideration on Repeated Courses: For students who have repeated some of their courses (to pass these courses or improve their grades), the calculations of their POs and CGPAs will only take into account the improved marks/grades from these repeated courses. In other words, the lower marks/grades from the same courses taken previously will not be aggregated into their POs and CGPAs.

In addition to the new upgrade above, users are advised to check out the list of major upgrades in iOBE v6.1, recently completed two months prior to this upgrade.


Completion of Upgrades:
This latest update completes all the major upgrades intended for the iOBE software to be able to perform its two primary functions:

1. To calculate students' outcomes attainments at the course/program levels,
2. To present those outcomes in useful tabular and graphical forms.

Data Management:
Detailed management of the outcomes data is beyond the functionalities of this free software. To do so, users can build separate systems, e.g., through a simple spreadsheet-based system, or more effectively, through a modular software-based system. Please contact the software developer for advice on how to do this.

Operating System:
The new version was developed in the 64-bit Windows OS with Matlab R2021a and therefore has to be run with the newest Matlab compiler in the same Windos OS. The software can also be run on Apple MAC computers, but only within the 64-bit Windows OS environment that needs to be installed first into the MAC computers.

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