Active Engineering Co-op Students (percentages of total students):

Number of Co-op Students and Co-op Academic Quarters

For the most recent two quarters where data is available, the next table gives Employer ratings of our Co-op students. This data is very encouraging in assessing our effectiveness. According to Dr. Alam, the ME Co-op advisor, these external Employer evaluations are typical of the last several years.

Permanent employment feedback also forms valuable external assessment feedback to our program. Recently Mr. Don Hart of The Timken Company and Dr. Tom Wakeman of General Electric Company expressed satisfaction with the OU ME graduates they have hired and both expressed interest in hiring more in the future.

Our next ABET accreditation occurs in Fall 1998, under the existing rules. However, in the year 2000, ABET will shift to outcomes-based accreditation. Therefore, we are making plans (in conjunction with this yearly outcomes-based assessment) to comply early with this future change.

This is our third year of outcomes-based assessment and we are focusing on evaluating how our assessment vehicles are performing in achieving our department goals. We recognize the need for better data, based on actual graduate outcomes. An immediate goal is to maintain a database of all graduating seniors. Also, we are collecting and maintaining a folder of business cards from our graduates currently working in the field, from all possible years. As a first step, we have obtained the complete list of 1,360 BSME graduates from Ohio University, with addresses and employment information.

The following two tables summarize outcomes-based data from the Mechanical Engineering Career and Further Education and Mechanical Engineering Five-year Educational Outcomes, respectively.

The results of these two tables are encouraging in our outcomes-based assessment. A high percentage of our graduates are employed in industrial jobs. A significant number have obtained or are pursing master’s degrees and professional certification (not required for all jobs). We would like to increase graduate satisfaction in terms of being extremely satisfied with the quality of instruction and feeling that their Mechanical Engineering education prepared them very well for their careers; as shown in the top table, this number is increasing for our department over the last three years.

The following figure graphically summarizes item #11, Competencies Needed and Developed, from the Mechanical Engineering Five-year Educational Outcomes data. For 14 major areas, this data describes the degree to which OU Mechanical Engineering graduates feel each area is needed and also how well their OU education prepared them for that specific area. The solid lines plot the averages; data falling in the upper right quadrant are the areas which are needed and we are doing a good job providing. Data in the lower left quadrant are the areas which are not needed (according to our graduates, not according to the ME department) and we are not doing a good job providing. The primary area of concern is the upper left quadrant, areas which our alumni perceive are needed but not being effectively provided by our department. From the five year survey data, 1986-1991, there are two areas which fall into this problem category: 1) Sensitivity to feelings and perceptions of others; and 2) Organize and supervise work of others. Our department needs to work on these shortcomings. For the four items in the lower-left quadrant, our graduates perceive that these are not important and that we are not doing a good job providing them. We believe that if we improve our efforts in these areas, our graduates may start to perceive them as important and these items will move towards the upper right quadrant. We especially wish to change the low position of Cope With Ethical Issues. The eight elements in the upper right quadrant demonstrate our department’s and Ohio University curriculum’s effectiveness in these important areas. These tend to be clustered in the upper corner, where we want them to remain in the future. Overall, the results from Competencies Needed and Developed indicate we are doing very well in preparing students for industrial jobs in Mechanical Engineering and related fields.

The following data indicate ME student enrollment and graduation trends over the review period:

As can be seen, total enrollments have remained relatively steady while the number of students completing the program has increased significantly. Freshman enrollments have declined slightly; however, these data do not include the "undecided engineering" students, the number of which has increased significantly during the review period. The Department has begun more active recruiting to attract new freshmen. This includes an annual "phonathon" wherein members of ASME contact prospective students by phone to discuss the ME program, and frequent visits by prospective students and their families.

Four curriculum changes have recently been proposed or accomplished as a result of external and internal assessment feedback.

1. ME 100 is now offered every quarter (started in Fall 1997). Previous to this course, we did not encounter our students until late in their sophomore year, when they take the service courses ME 224 and ME 321. Mechanical Engineering design, history, and techniques are introduced in ME 100. Matlab software is also introduced, based on feedback from previous student evaluations.
2. The course contents of Physics 252 and 253 have been reversed (led by the ME department) so that engineering students may take CE 220, Statics, in proper sequence, with the appropriate Physics prerequisite.
3. ME junior-level required courses are now being offered twice per year to accommodate Co-op students. The ME department values Co-op students and must facilitate their academic schedules. A side-benefit is smaller classes.
4. The entire senior-level design sequence has been proposed for overhaul based on industry feedback. Currently a total of nine credit hours comprise ME 404 (Machine Design II, 4 credit hours) or ME 417 (Design of Thermal Systems, 4 credit hours), plus ME 499 (individualized senior design project, 4 credit hours) and ME 480 (Senior Colloquium, 1 credit hour). This nine credit hours will be re-worked into a three-quarter (three credit hours each) senior design course sequence where there is one major design project with hardware results. This major change will be implemented during the next academic year.
5. Our department is offering various graduate courses in the OAI teleconferencing classroom for engineers in industry interested in pursuing a master’s degree. Also, we are collaborating with OSU in alternating the teaching graduate courses via the OAI electronic classroom.
6. A Mechanical Engineering Honors Program has been implemented in order to involve undergraduate students in research projects (for credit) and to recruit top U.S. citizens for graduate study in our department.
7. Improvements in written and oral technical communications are being pursued in many courses, based on industry feedback.
8. The ME department led an effort to replace our students’ training in Cadkey with AutoCAD software for technical drawing and CAD/CAM. This change was motivated by external feedback from industry, Co-op employers, and internal feedback from students and faculty.

In addition to maintaining our current efforts in curriculum and assessment, the following future plans are presented to focus on outcomes-based assessment.

ME 100 will continue to be taught to our freshman students so they may have earlier contact with ME faculty, an introduction to design and analysis techniques, and industrial involvement through guest speakers and field trips.

The current nine credit hour senior design effort will be reworked into a three-quarter sequence to serve as our capstone design sequence. The purpose for the change is to: 1) give all students extensive design experience including hardware; 2) include regular deadlines, including the need for written and oral intermediate reports; and 3) provide a unified, competition-driven design course sequence lasting three quarters.

As larger numbers of our students enter the Co-op program, the student and employer reports will become increasingly important sources of external assessment feedback. The benefit of this mode is that current students may not only assist in changing our programs, but may themselves profit before graduation.

The ME curriculum, seven-year review, ABET accreditation, and outcomes-based assessment committees will be integrated. This will be accomplished to share assessment feedback efficiently and to facilitate implementing changes in a responsive and timely fashion.

The ME department has now added twelve questions to the standard Ohio University Career and Further Education Study for our graduates only. The purpose is to provide detailed outcomes-based data specific to our department program. This survey addendum, written by Chuck Rich and the author, has been sent out for the first time during Spring 1998, so we expect to report our first data from this effort next year. The ME department believes that an ME-specific addendum would be more effective in the Five-Year survey, but currently the Ohio University Office of Institutional Research only offers this service for the One-Year survey.

In summary, current external feedback evidence points to success in producing strong ME graduates. Several curricular changes are in progress to meet needs based on previous feedback. We are in the process of shifting our assessment paradigm to external outcomes-based assessment. The ME advisory board, industrial employers, and Co-op students and employers are valuable external feedback resources

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