Redesigning a non-technical graduate attribute assessment tool

Canadian Engineering programs are required to continually improve their curricula based on direct and indirect data collected from stakeholders for each graduate attribute. Gathering such information is crucial for the assessment of professional graduate attributes that are more difficult to measure and on which institutions rely on self-assessments and surveys. The purpose of this pilot project was to redesign an assessment tool that evaluates non-technical graduate attributes of undergraduate engineering programs in a Canadian university. Three analyses were conducted to determine the usefulness of the tool: 1) first year and fourth year student scores on the original survey were compared, 2) fourth year student scores on the original tool and the new tool were compared, and 3) scores from the self-assessment and knowledge sections from the new tool were compared.