Engineering graduate attribute attainment measurement models

Abstract

Various outcome-based education (OBE) performance measurement approaches demonstrate students’ attainment of a set of Graduate Attributes (GA) in the engineering programme. This paper presents four measurement models, namely the indicative, explicit, GA assessment, and culminating models, to measure GA attainment. The indicative model uses the total assessment mark as an indicator for GA attainment, whereas the explicit model utilises a specific mark from an assessment. The GA assessment and culminating models utilise the explicit approach from assessments that fulfil the GA requirement. The culminating model only consists of assessments from advanced and capstone courses. This research aims to determine whether the indicative model that uses an indicator approach can significantly represent GA attainment. This research also explores assessment selection differences in GA attainment. Statistical analysis was used to determine if the models were significantly different through the paired two-sample means t-test. The indicative model could not represent the GA attainment as it differed substantially from the explicit model. Both GA assessment and culminating models can be used to represent the attainment of students’ GA. GA assessment model provides monitoring of students’ progress in GA attainment, while the culminating models enable measurement at capstones and in advanced years.