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Online Assessment And Learning Instruments For Cooperative Education Students: The Importance Of Co Op Data To Abet

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Conference

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Honolulu, Hawaii

Publication Date

June 24, 2007

Start Date

June 24, 2007

End Date

June 27, 2007

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Collaboration Provides the Best Education

Tagged Division

Cooperative & Experiential Education

Page Count

12

Page Numbers

12.1124.1 - 12.1124.12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--1764

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/1764

Download Count

479

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Paper Authors

biography

Cheryl Cates University of Cincinnati

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As an Associate Professor, Cheryl Cates has worked with cooperative education students for 16 years. Cates holds a Master of Business Administration degree and a Bachelor of Arts Degree and has co-authored Learning Outcomes, the Educational Value of Cooperative Education, as well as chapters for the Handbook for Research in Cooperative Education and Internships and the International Handbook for Cooperative Education. In 2004 Cates became principle investigator on a grant from the United Stated Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education to Develop a Corporate Feedback System for Use in Curricular Reform.

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biography

Anita Todd University of Cincinnati

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Anita Todd, Assistant Professor in the Division of Professional Practice, is the faculty co-op coordinator for electrical and the mechanical/nuclear ACCEND program and assists with the IT and data compiling needs of the division. Professor Todd has been actively involved in many local, regional, and national cooperative education organizations. Professor Todd is currently the president-elect for the Cooperative Education and Internship Association (CEIA), has presented and held board positions in the American Society of Engineering Education Cooperative Education Division (ASEE/CED), and the Pennsylvania Association for Colleges and Employers.

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Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

ONLINE ASSESSMENT AND LEARNING INSTRUMENTS FOR COOPERATIVE EDUCATION STUDENTS: THE IMPORTANCE OF CO-OP DATA TO ABET Abstract –The cooperative education programs managed by the Division of Professional Practice at the University of Cincinnati are academic programs committed to offer an education that meets ABET 2000 criteria. Cooperative education offers an opportunity for universities to assess at a formative level how well academic programs prepare students for career-related work experiences. An important goal of the University of Cincinnati is to provide improved market feedback to the degree granting departments to insure the department can meet the ever changing needs of industry. The online assessment tools described in this paper will help to close this feedback loop.

Introduction

The introduction of the Accreditation Board for Engineering Education Engineering Criteria 2000 (ABET EC 2000) comprises a considerable milestone in the evolution of engineering and engineering technology education. The new ABET criteria strongly accentuate a sensitivity to market needs. Measurement, feedback and continuous improvement form the corner stones of the ABET EC 2000 philosophy. 1

Cooperative education and internship programs have historically collected employer and student performance evaluation data each term. These evaluations have been used to reflect on and improve student or employer performance, however, the data has not been used in a formal way to provide feedback to engineering departments relative to academic educational goals, nor were the assessment tools designed to do so. 2

Cooperative education evaluation data has become increasingly important to engineering department administration as part of the overall measurement of the departmental education quality. This primarily stems from the fact that co-op programs work very closely with engineering employers soliciting their feedback on a term by term basis throughout the co-op process. Immediate feedback on market needs can be gained through the proper use of co-op evaluations. Therefore, great emphasis has been placed on developing evaluation criteria that meet the needs of the cooperative education programs and the ABET needs of the college or university. The University of Cincinnati (UC), along with many engineering cooperative education and internship programs recognized this assessment need, and developed new assessment tools in the late nineties in anticipation of the new ABET 2000 engineering criteria.

Until 2003, evaluations were gathered on paper, making the charge of analyzing and summarizing feedback for the departments a time consuming, if even possible task. The ease of using online data collection and evaluation tools has greatly

Cates, C., & Todd, A. (2007, June), Online Assessment And Learning Instruments For Cooperative Education Students: The Importance Of Co Op Data To Abet Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--1764

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2007 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015