1. Evaluating Course Outcomes (Direct and Indirect):
A. Direct Evaluation: is defined as the process of evaluating the learning outcomes of a given course using grade-based indicators. For instance, Exams, assignments, quizzes, home-works, projects, and in-class activities are common direct-assessment indicators. Our procedure to perform this process can be summarized as follows:
1. The course coordination committee is responsible for designing the syllabus at the beginning of each semester. The outcomes (CLOs), grading policy, topics, and activities are subject to change periodically. Further, each CLO should be assigned a weight that indicates the percentage of its contribution in the whole course.
2. he coordination committee is responsible for the mapping process, which requires mapping each indicator to its correspondent outcomes.
3. At the end of each semester, course coordinators MUST submit the course portfolio to the department. The course portfolio contains the following items:
a. Up-to-date Course Syllabus
b. Coordination Minutes
c. Attendance Sheet
d. Sample of Exams and their answer keys (Minimum, Average, and Maximum)
e. Assignments, Quizzes, Home-works, and In-class activities.
f. Analysis of Course and Student Performance (Excel Sheet)
B. Indirect Evaluation: is defined as the process of evaluating the learning outcomes of a given course using non-grading and subjective indicators. For instance, surveys and interviews are common examples of indirect assessment indicators. Our procedure to perform this process can be summarized as follows:
1. Course coordinators are responsible for designing an exit survey that surveying the opinion of students at the end of each semester. The Survey MUST cover questions about CLOs and student satisfaction with respect to these outcomes.
2. Coordinators, then, submit the data and their statistical analysis to the department.
2. Evaluating Program Learning Outcomes:
A. Direct Assessment: The department chair formulates a focus-group for each PLO in the curriculum. The focus-group is a group of instructors who are responsible for:
1. Collecting the direct and indirect assessment data for each course that is mapped to the assigned PLO.
2. Fill-in the PLO analysis form and conduct all calculations.
3. Write the final recommendations for each course and indicate a set of improvements that may improve the performance of students at next semesters.
B. Indirect Assessment: Alumni and employers are surveyed in order to evaluate the program learning outcomes. The survey questions are designed with a clear mapping to every PLO.
3. Evaluating Program Educational Objectives:
The Advisory board is responsible for evaluating the program educational objectives (PEOs). Such evaluation is based on their experience in the industry of information technology and computer sciences. The Advisory board is assembled every two years in order to review reports, evaluations, assessments and other data so that the board can evaluate and update the PEOs if required.
