Establishing Outcomes For Senior Capstone Projects In Industrial Technology

Thomas Schildgen, Jon Duff
2005 Annual Conference Proceedings   unpublished
As part of continuous curriculum improvement and outcomes assessment for professional accreditation, the Department of Information and Management Technology at Arizona State University on the Polytechnic Campus determined that a mandatory senior project be established. The methodology for validating such a senior project included a descriptive survey of three constituent groups: students in upper division courses, faculty, and a jury of senior industry advisory board members. A comprehensive
more » ... t of senior project key words was created from a broad sample of existing national senior project descriptions. An attitudinal survey instrument was created from this list of key words. The results of the survey were analyzed for the variability of response within and between constituent groups, and the direction of agreement on a five-point Likert scale. Conclusions were drawn as to which measures showed agreement or disagreement, and how those results might impact the implementation of the senior project course. demonstrate students' ability to integrate knowledge across different disciplines." 12 In their comparison of accreditation standards of NAIT, TAC of ABET, and the AACSB, Ward and Dugger 13 indicated that Industrial Technology graduates often work directly with engineering and business graduates, and that the workplace would benefit from consistent standards of learning outcomes. However, this has not been accomplished and no initiative has been instituted. Because accreditation agencies increasingly recognize the benefits of outcomes-based assessment, senior projects should be based on schema of identifiable and accepted outcomes. A good example of a senior project formed around identifiable outcomes can be found with the Department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance at Arizona State University West where projects are evaluated on seven distinct learning outcomes. 14
doi:10.18260/1-2--15605 fatcat:266nfvk74rauhjip2yfblqg4ca