A Classroom Teaching Quality Evaluation System for the Master of Software Engineering in China Based on Engineering Education Accreditation

Kaikun Dong＊, Dianhui Chu, Kuanquan Wang, Li Guo, Songlin Gu

Abstract: Classroom teaching is a vital part of postgraduate education. The deficiencies of traditional classroom teaching quality evaluation methods for the postgraduate education of Master of Software Engineering in China are analyzed. The Engineering Education Accreditation and its education quality evaluation methods are introduced briefly, and the strengths of applying these methods for the classroom teaching quality evaluation are discussed. Based on the ideas and evaluation framework of Engineering Education Accreditation, adopting the merits of the traditional methods, a student-centered classroom teaching quality evaluation system is proposed to evaluate and continually improve the classroom teaching quality of Master of Software Engineering. The quality evaluation system covers teaching goals, teacher performance, student performance,teaching effect, supporting conditions and continual improvement totally six aspects. The advanced concepts and ideas of Engineering Education Accreditation and the merits of the traditional classroom teaching quality evaluation methods are both adopted in the proposed classroom teaching quality evaluation system.

Key words: master of software engineering; classroom teaching; quality evaluation; engineering education accreditation

1 Introduction

Since Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) and other 34 universities had been granted to establish National Pilot Schools of Software by the National Ministry of Education and State Development Planning Commission in 2000, the education of Master of Software Engineering (MSE) in China has experienced seventeen years. Great progress has been made and a large number of high level personnel of software engineering have been trained to meet the extremely increasing requirement from software industry[1]. Therefore, more and more attentions from the education organizations, governments, information technology industry and the public have been paid to the postgraduate education quality of MSE[2].

Classroom teaching is a vital part of the postgraduate education of MSE. It is necessary for the knowledge accumulation and growth of students. In reference[3],it was pointed out that courses study was an important feature of Chinese degree and postgraduate education,and an essential aspect for assuring the postgraduate education quality.

On June 2, 2016, China was accepted as the 18th official member of Washington Agreement on the International Engineering Alliance Conference held in Kuala Lumpur. The concepts, ideas and educational quality evaluation system of Engineering Education Accreditation have a pro-found guiding significance for improving the quality of engineering education at postgraduate level[4-5]. Currently, the research and working team of professional qualification accreditation and docking led by the Chinese National Supervisory Committee for the Education of Master of Engineering has proposed the Framework of the Postgraduate Level Engineering Education Accreditation.

Under the above background, the research of classroom teaching quality evaluation methods based on the ideas of Engineering Education Accreditation, which could evaluate the quality scientifically and objectively for the education of MSE is meaningful to assure and improve the education quality of MSE. It can also promote the educational management level of MSE.

2 The Deficiencies of Traditional Classroom Teaching Quality Evaluation Methods

At present, many training organizations of MSE in China follow the traditional classroom teaching quality evaluation methods for postgraduate education. A typical classroom teaching quality evaluation table from a wellknown university of China is shown in Table 1, which can be classified as teaching attitude, teaching content,teaching method and teaching quality four aspects. Table 1 shows a typical classroom teaching quality evaluation table from a university of China.

The education quality evaluation method based on Table 1 has four obvious deficiencies for evaluating the classroom teaching quality of MSE.

First of all, the effective supporting for achieving thestudent training goals and course goals has not been evaluated. For example, the course ‘Algorithms Design and Analysis’ is usually included in both curriculum systems of MSE and the academic Master Degree of computer science. However, due to different student training goals, the two categories of graduate students should have their own course goals. If a teacher teaches MSE postgraduates in accordance with the training and course goals of the academic Master Degree of computer science, even his performance in teaching attitude, teaching content, teaching methods and teaching quality may be excellent, it still has a negative effect on meeting the professional competence training goals of MSE.

Table 1 A typical classroom teaching quality evaluation table from a university of China.

Secondly, the performance of students who are the subject of the teaching activities in classroom teaching has not been evaluated. With the research and development of the subject theory of contemporary teaching activities, the dualism is widely recognized that teachers and students both play the main roles in teaching activities[6]. As an important participant in classroom teaching, students are both the object of teaching and the carrier of the teaching goal, which has an important in fluence on the quality of classroom teaching. Therefore, the initiative, activity and other performance of students should not be excluded from the classroom teaching quality evaluation system.

Thirdly, the outcome and effect of classroom teaching has not been evaluated. Professor Bloom,an American educational evaluation expert from University of Chicago, pointed out in his book“Taxonomy of Educational Objectives--Cognitive Domain” that “Educational evaluation is a systematic collection of evidence to determine whether the learner has actually been made some changes, or to determine the number or extent of the changes has been made in individuals”[7]. The education quality evaluation of classroom teaching should consider the following questions. Whether the students have understood,mastered the important concepts and knowledge points? Whether the students have a clear and correct understanding on the problems related to the classroom content? Whether the students can solve some of the engineering and technical problems relevant to the classroom teaching content?

Finally, the supporting conditions to ensure the quality of classroom teaching has not been evaluated.How can you imagine that good teaching effect can be achieved in a dim and noisy classroom, with a blurred and indistinct multimedia projector, a screeching microphone, and some out of date and dilapidated teaching equipment? There is no doubt that even a teacher with conscientious teaching attitude, well prepared teaching content, experienced and rich teaching methods and excellent personal teaching quality cannot do a good job under these poor teaching conditions.

The main minuses of traditional classroom teaching quality evaluation method is to classify the quality of classroom teaching into the category of teacher evaluation[8]. The object of quality evaluation is misunderstood as the teacher rather than the teaching activity itself. This kind of evaluation can identify the strengths and weaknesses of the teachers, and improve their inadequacy. However, to improve the education quality of classroom teaching, the traditional classroom teaching quality evaluation methods have limitations.

3 The Strengths of the Education Quality Evaluation Method Based on Engineering Education Accreditation

Literature[9]points out that the so-called Engineering Education Accreditation is the evaluation procedure to confirm whether an education organization’s educational practice can guarantee the achievement of its training goals according to some widely accepted standards and processes. Compared with the traditional education quality evaluation method,accreditation can not only accurately evaluate the education quality, but also promote the education reform and improve the education quality. Engineering Education Accreditation is a procedure of evaluation,confirmation and making suggestions for improvement.The core goal of Engineering Education Accreditation is to confirm whether the engineering graduates have met the established quality standard of the industry and provided the preparatory education quality assurance for the relevant engineering and technical personnel to enter the industry. This is highly accords with the educational goal of MSE for qualifying the postgraduates for the engineering and technical profession by cultivating their professional competency.

The strengths of the education quality evaluation method based on Engineering Education Accreditation are embodied in the following aspects.

● Emphasize goal orientation. An important idea of Engineering Education Accreditation is orienting the educational practice to the student training goals and graduation requirements. All the aspects of educational practice should effectively support the achievement of student training goals. Applying this idea to classroom teaching quality evaluation, the classroom teaching activities should meet the requirements of student training goals and course goals.

● Student-centered and focusing on educational output and effectiveness. The ultimate education goal of classroom teaching activities is what the students have learned, not what the teachers has taught. Classroom teaching should promote the students' knowledge accumulation and cognitive ability in related fields.The number or extent of the promotion should be considered into the quality evaluation system.

● Reflecting the whole process of education practice. While emphasizing educational output and effectiveness, Engineering Education Accreditation also focuses on the whole process of education. As the most important participant, the students’ performance such as the enthusiasm, initiative, the interactions with teachers, etc., should be adopted as the indicators of the classroom teaching quality evaluation system.

● Paying attention to the education supporting conditions. The education supporting conditions of the training organizations is required by the Engineering Education Accreditation to be conducive to help the students to achieve the expectant training goals. Based on this idea, the supporting conditions of classroom teaching should be able to guarantee the smooth implementation of the classroom teaching practice and be conducive to achieve the expectant students training goals and the course goals.

● Emphasizing continual improvement. The main educational sections should have clear quality requirements and evaluation mechanisms, and the evaluation results should be used for continual education quality improvement. The fundamental goal of classroom teaching quality evaluation is to promote the improvement of classroom teaching quality, not just the promotion of the teachers' teaching level.

4 The Classroom Teaching Quality Evaluation System Based on Engineering Education Accreditation

In order to objectively and accurately evaluate the classroom teaching quality of MSE, promote the continual improvement of the classroom teaching quality and ensure the achievement of the student training goals, a classroom teaching quality evaluation system based on the ideas of Engineering Education Accreditation is proposed in this paper, as shown in Table 2.

The proposed classroom teaching quality evaluation system covers teaching goals, teacher performance,student performance, teaching effect, supporting conditions and continual improvement six aspects,which constituted the first level evaluation indicators.Engineering Education Accreditation uses passing indicators instead of quantitative scores. To compatible with the existing education management system in China, we investigated relevant research results at home and abroad[10-11]and quantize the weight of the 12 secondary level indicators using the survey data collected during the sixth and the seventh National Conference on Education of Master of Engineering in Computer Technology Field held in 2013 and 2016 respectively. The Analytic Network Process (ANP)algorithm was applied and the weights are calculated according to the round up principle as integral multiple of 5 to ensure the maneuverability of evaluation. The first level indicators are weighted by the summation of the secondary level indicators’ weight it covered. This paper suggests that we can draw lessons from Indian engineering education accreditation organization, the National Board of Accreditation[12]that only all the indicator scores exceed 60% of the corresponding weight, the education organization under evaluation can be evaluated as pass.Table 2 shows the classroom teaching quality evaluation system based on the ideas of engineering education accreditation.

5 Conclusion

The proposer of CIPP Evaluation Model, Daniel L. Stufflebeam pointed out that the most important purpose of evaluation is not to prove, but to improve[13].The key point of class-room teaching quality evaluation for MSE postgraduates should be the problems and shortcomings existed in the teaching process and the effective problem solving methods. The qualityevaluation ought to be applied for classroom teaching quality improvement. Based on the ideas and evaluation framework of Engineering Education Accreditation,adopting the merits of traditional classroom teaching quality evaluation methods, a student-centered classroom teaching quality evaluation system is proposed to evaluate and continually improve the classroom teaching quality of MSE. The evaluation system overcomes the limitation of the traditional classroom teaching quality evaluation method which put the classroom teaching quality evaluation into the category of teacher evaluation. Comprehensive evaluation content such as teaching goals, teacher performance,student performance, teaching effect, supporting conditions and continual improvement are adopted in the evaluation system to characterize the quality of classroom teaching. The continual improvement of classroom teaching quality can be achieved by applying the evaluation system to the classroom teaching quality evaluation of MSE postgraduates. At present,this research is still in the exploratory stage, and need more in-depth research, especially the confirmation of evaluation practice for further improvement. The intention of this research is to promote and improve the classroom teaching, student study, teaching reform and course construction through classroom teaching quality evaluation.

Table 2 The classroom teaching quality evaluation system based on the ideas of engineering education accreditation.

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the Chinese Society of Academic Degrees and Graduate Education under Grant No. A2-2017Y0503-006, the Chinese National Supervisory Committee for the Education of Master of Engineering under Grant No. 2016-ZDn-6, Shandong Provincial Department of Education under Grant No.SDYY14003 and No. SDYZ1603.