Before studying any subject in the given curriculum, it is essential to know its educational objective to understand its relevance with the current scenario. Therefore, PEO's are directly related to the mission and vision statement of the organization. Later on, the mapping of these PEO's has been incorporated with the program outcomes of different subjects. All these objectives and outcomes are written in qualitative parameters. The present study elaborates how the qualitative parameters are converted to a quantitative framework for measuring the course's effectiveness and the pupils' employability. This study also indicates the importance of each subject thru a quantitative framework.
TopIntroduction
According to the ABET document written by Rogers, program educational objectives (PEO) describe how the program helps achieve students' career prospects and professional aspects. PEO is a broad statement, and it may be mapped to the student outcomes, which describe what students are expected to know or be able to do by the time they complete an academic program. On the contrary, the PEOs may differ from student outcomes regarding the degree of specificity, the role of constituents, the purpose of assessment, and data collection cycles. The ABET documentation clearly says the PEOs are a significant statement. PEOs are the base statement based on which students may choose a particular course and organization. This statement also incorporates the graduates of using opted program about concrete, functional, reliable, coordinated, and proficient human beings (Rogers, 2020).
ABET had established in 1932 as a professional body for engineering education and its development. It was known by the organization Engineers’ Council for Professional Development (ECPD) for the engineering students of the United States and was situated in New York; later in 1996, the ABET head office relocated to Baltimore, Maryland. The responsibility of ABET then was to establish the benchmark in engineering education through its accreditation program known as Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC). ECPD had started as ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) in 1980. Computer education has had its importance from its inception. To see the significance and relevance to industry standards, ABET had helped to establish Computing Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB) in 1985. CSAB is a trendy body having more than 300 different programs for accreditations (Lattuca, Terenzini, & Volkwein, 2006).
Figure 1. Relationship between vision, mission, goal, and objectives
TopBackground
Figure 1 shows the relationship between vision, mission, goal, and objectives. The education institutes focus on the big picture called a vision statement. Achieving the stated things in the vision can be generally elaborated by a mission statement. Everything can be accommodated with specific practices and acts defined by the organization's core values. There are some targets of any organization commonly referred to as goals. A goal must be understandable, suitable to the organization's mission and vision, acceptable to a wide range of stakeholders, and flexible with all environments. Finally, the objectives are the statements converted from goals. The objectives must meet the criteria of suitability, measurability, feasibility, commitment, and ownership. Measurability turns the quality into quantitative terms (Williams, 2002).
Let us have a look at the mission statement of the University of California Academic Plan, 1974-1978. It says, “The university's distinctive mission is to serve society as a center of higher learning, providing long-term societal benefits through transmitting advanced knowledge, discovering new knowledge, and functioning as an active working repository of organized knowledge. That obligation, more specifically, includes undergraduate education, graduate and professional education, research, and other kinds of public service, which are shaped and bounded by the central pervasive mission of discovering and advancing knowledge.” (University of California, 2021)
Likewise, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology describes its mission as: “The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.” (MIT, 2021)
In India, the mission statement of IIT Roorkee states that “To create an environment that shall foster the growth of intellectually capable, innovative and entrepreneurial professionals, who shall contribute to the growth of Science and Technology in partnership with industry and develop and harness it for the welfare of the nation and mankind.” (IIT-Roorkee, 2021)