ATMAE ACCREDITATION CASE STUDY: MEETING THE PROGRAM OUTCOME CRITERIA

The Industrial Technology & Packaging Technology (ITP) program at California Polytechnic State University incorporates a broad range of applied engineering skills and business management with two areas of emphasis: operations and packaging technologies. The operations technology encompasses general operations management skills, supply chain management, lean processes and product development. The packaging technology encompasses packaging design/testing and packaging machinery. The program has been recently reviewed for re-accreditation by the Association of Technology, Management and Applied Engineering (ATMAE). ATMAE is the preeminent organization in the U.S. for accreditation of 2- and 4-year college level educational programs in applied engineering and technology fields.

This paper presents some background on the author’s experiences in collecting and presenting performance data for re-accreditation of the ITP program by ATMAE. The revised ATMAE accreditation criteria, ATMAE 2011, emphasize the assessment of program learning outcomes, that is, educational outcomes to be achieved by exiting seniors by the time of graduation.

The author will share his observations in planning and developing the re-accreditation self-study report with focus on outcome assessment.
Main points included in the presentation are as follows:
- Background of related work
- Assessment process
- Student/alumni success measures:
- Graduate Satisfaction with Program
- Employment of Graduates
- Job Advancement of Graduates
- Employer Satisfaction with Job Performance
- Student Retention
- Effective data collection practices
- Use of ATMAE Exit Exam data as an assessment tool
- Closing the loop
- Presentation of program resources/performance data
- What has been learned through re-accreditation process