Engineering Programs and

NBA Accreditation
N J Rao and K Rajanikanth

njraoiisc@gmail.com; rajani341949@yahoo.com
Engineering Programs in India
• Are offered as per the regulations of All India
Council for Technical Education (AICTE)
• Are offered by Tier 1 (Academically Autonomous)
and Tier 2 (Academically Non-autonomous)
Institutions.
• At present 95% of engineering colleges are
academically non-autonomous, i.e., Tier 2
institutions.

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National Board of Accreditation
(NBA)
• Established in the year 1994 under Section 10 (u)
of AICTE Act.
• NBA became Autonomous in January 2010 and in
April 2013 the Memorandum of Association and
Rules of NBA were amended to make it completely
independent of AICTE, administratively as well as
financially.
• NBA became a permanent member of the
Washington Accord (an international accord) in
2014.

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Washington Accord
• It recognizes the substantial equivalency of programs
accredited by those bodies and recommends that
graduates of programs accredited by any of the
signatory bodies be recognized by the other bodies as
having met the academic requirements for entry
to the practice of engineering

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Accreditation
• Accreditation is a process of quality assurance and
improvement, whereby a program in an approved
Institution is critically appraised to verify that the
Institution or the program continues to meet
and/or exceed the Norms and Standards prescribed
by regulator from time to time.
• It is a kind of recognition which indicates that a
programme or Institution fulfils certain standards.
• Programs, and not Educational Institutions, are
considered for accreditation.

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Purpose of accreditation is NOT TO
• find faults with the institution but to assess the
status-ante of the performance
• denigrate the working style of the institution and its
programs but to provide a feed back on their
strengths and weaknesses
• demarcate the boundaries of quality but to offer a
sensitizing process for continuous improvement in
quality provisions
• select only institutions of national excellence but to
provide benchmarks of excellence and identification
of good practices

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Benefits of Accreditation
• Facilitates continuous Quality Improvement
• Demonstrates accountability to the public
• Improves staff morale
• Recognizes the achievements/innovations
• Facilitates information sharing
• Priority in getting financial assistance
• Helps the Institution to know its strengths,
weaknesses and opportunities
• Initiates Institutions into innovative and modern
methods of pedagogy
• Promotes intra and inter-Institutional interactions

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What are Outcomes?
• An outcome of an education is what the student
should be able to do at the end of a program/
course/ instructional unit.
• Outcome-based education is an approach to
education in which decisions about the curriculum
are driven by the exit learning outcomes that the
students should display at the end of the program/
course.

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Why is OBE important?

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Outcomes
• Outcomes are the abilities the students acquire at
the end of the program
• Outcomes provide the basis for an effective
interaction among stakeholders
• In outcome-based education, “product defines
process”.
• It is the results-oriented thinking and is the
opposite of input-based education where the
emphasis is on the educational process and where
“we are happy to accept whatever is the result”
• Outcome-based education is not simply
producing outcomes for an existing
curriculum.

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Perceived Disadvantages of OBE
• Imposition of Constraints
– The concern was that education should be open
ended, taking the student where he or she was
able to develop.
– “the proposed outcomes watered down
academics in favour of ill-defined values and
process skills”
– “traditional academic content is omitted or
buried in a morass of pedagogic clap-trap in the
outcome-based education plans that have
emerged to date”
• Inclusion and Emphasis on Attitudes and Values
was inappropriate

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Perceived Disadvantages of OBE
(contd.,)

• Inhibition of Learning by Discovery

– education should be valued for its own sake and
not because it led to a pre-identified outcome
• To define education as a set of outcomes decided in
advance of teaching and learning, conflicts with the
wonderful, unpredictable voyages of exploration
that characterize learning through discovery and
enquiry.

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Levels of Outcomes
• Program Educational Objectives: PEOs are
broad statements that describe the career and
professional accomplishments in five years after
graduation that the program is preparing graduates
to achieve.
• Program Outcomes: POs are statements that
describe what the students graduating from
engineering programs should be able to do
• Program Specific Outcomes: PSOs are
statements that describe what the graduates of a
specific engineering program should be able to do
• Course Outcomes: COs are statements that
describe what students should be able to do at the
end of a course

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What is SAR
(Self Assessment Report)
• SAR is compilation of such data and information
pertaining to a given program for its assessment
(identifying strength and weaknesses) vis-à-vis
accomplishment of defined POs and PSOs by the
college itself.
– SAR has two parts
– Part -I seeks Institutional /Departmental
information

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What is SAR (contd.,)
– Part –II seeks information on ten criteria and
Programme Educational Objectives, Programme
(Specific)Outcomes, Programme Curriculum,
Students’ Performance, Faculty Contributions,
Facilities and Technical Support, Academic
Support Units and Teaching-Learning Process,
Governance, Institutional Support and Financial
Resources, Continuous Improvement in
Attainment of Outcomes
• NBA reconfirms or differs from the assessment of
the institution, using a mechanism of peer review,
in its evaluation report.

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SAR Criteria (Tier II)
Criteria Mark/
Criteria
No. Weightage

Program Level Criteria

1. Vision, Mission and Program Educational Objectives 60

2. Program Curriculum and Teaching–Learning Processes 120

3. Program Outcomes and Course Outcomes 120

4. Students’ Performance 150

5. Faculty Information and Contributions 200

6. Facilities and Technical Support 80

7. Continuous Improvement 50
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SAR Criteria (contd.,)
Criteria Mark/
Criteria
No. Weightage

Institute Level Criteria

8. First Year Academics 50

9. Student Support Systems 50

Governance, Institutional Support and Financial

10. 120
Resources

Total 1000

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Award of Accreditation
• Full Accreditation for 5 Years: 750 out of 1000
points with a minimum of 60% points in Criteria 1,
4, 5, 6, 7 and 8
• Provisional Accreditation for 2 Years: Minimum 600
out of 1000 points
• No Accreditation: < 600 points out of 1000 points

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V, M, PEOs, POs, PSOs, COs
Sections 1, 2, 3, and 8: Work Flow
T
o Vision and Mission of the Institute
p
-
D A
Vision and Mission of the Department T
o
w T
n A
A Program Educational Objectives I
p N
p M
r E
o Program Outcomes & Program Specific Outcomes N
a T
c
h
Curriculum

(Feedback loops omitted for convenience only)

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Vision and Mission
Vision: Where you “see” your department down the
road; Typically one sentence!
Mission: What you “do” to get there? Typically, 2-3
sentences.
• Must follow from Vision and Mission of the Institute
• Must be shared with all stake holders!
• Better to avoid “flowery” phrases(generally):
– World-Class
– Global excellence
– All round excellence …
• Must result from a well-defined and recorded
process!

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Vision and Mission - PROCESS
• Stakeholders: Top Management (...), Faculty and
Staff, Current Students, Alumni, Employers,
Industry reps, ......
• Process:
– Initial brainstorming at multiple levels;
– Review, refine, validate (Experts, Advisory
Group,...)
– Wide publicity (Institute web site, campus, ...)
– Review “to close the loop” (5 years?)
– (Regular interactions with new faculty and staff;
students?)
• Process documentation
• Records of process implementation
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Vision & Mission of the
Department

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PEOs
• What the Graduates of the program are expected
to achieve within 3 to 4 years of completing the
program.
• Can be abstract to some extent; but must be
smaller in number and must be achievable.
• Must follow from Vision and Mission
• Must follow an established process
• Typically, the process is similar to the one for Vision
and Mission
• Process Documentation
• Records of Process Implementation

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PEOs (2)
• Must be shared with all stake holders!
• Key elements (generally):
– Professional success
– Life-long learning, Higher Education, Research
– Ethical professional practice
– Communication skills
– Team player
– ……
• 3 to 5 PEOs may be arrived at following a well-
defined and recorded process
• Measurement and closing the loop

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Program Educational Objectives

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(Sample) PEOs – UG IN EEE
Graduates of BE program in EEE will be able to
1. Engage in design of systems, tools and
applications in the field of electrical and electronics
engineering and allied engineering industries
2. Apply the knowledge of electrical and electronics
engineering to solve problems of social relevance,
and/or pursue higher education and research
3. Work effectively as individuals and as team
members in multidisciplinary projects
4. Engage in lifelong learning, career enhancement
and adopt to changing professional and societal
needs

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Mission – PEO Mapping
• PEOs must be consistent with the Mission
• Example: A PEO states that the Graduates will be
successful in Research BUT Mission has no mention
of Research!
• Develop the PEO-Mission Matrix
• The strength of mapping between a PEO and an
element of Mission may be marked as Substantial,
Moderate, Slight
• Such mapping strengths must be justified
• From this perspective also, it is better to limit the
number of PEOs to a reasonably small number and
have fairly crisp Mission statements.

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Mission – PEO Mapping (2)
M1 M2 ... Mk
PEO1 - 3 3
...
...
PEOn 1 1 1
• M1, M2, and so on are elements of the Mission
• Correlation levels: 1, 2, or 3 interpreted as follows:
1- Slight; 2- Moderate; 3 – Substantial.
If there is no correlation, indicate by a “–”
• Each mapping needs to be justified

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Mission – PEO Mapping - 3
• Example:
A PEO states that the Graduates will engage in life-
long learning; this is mapped to an element of the
Mission statement, “environment conducive for
self-directed learning”; PEO3–M4: The mapping
strength is “substantial”
Justification: The learning environment provided in
the college is designed to promote self-directed
learning by the students; this coupled with the
Program Curriculum will lead Graduates to engage
in continuous learning in their professional careers.

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POs and PSOs
• What the students become capable of, at the end of
the program (PEOs look at the graduates 3 to 4
years after the completion of the program!)
• POs (12 in number) are defined by NBA; are
applicable to all UG programs; cover not just
technology competence but also skills and
attitudes!
• PSOs are program specific; 2 to 4; need to be
defined following a documented process

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POs and PSOs

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Attainment of
POs / PSOs

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Course Outcomes

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CO Attainment

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Closing the Quality Loop
• All the processes required for accreditation need to
have the step of “closing the loop”.
• A model useful for understanding this is the
Deming’s Quality Cycle:
PLAN

ACT DO

CHECK
• We plan the activity; do it; measure the
performance (CHECK); and finally based on what
was planned and what was actually achieved,
initiate appropriate action commencing the next
round of the quality cycle.

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Closing the Loop (cont’d)
ACTION:
• If the attainment lags behind the planned target,
we need to further analyze the reasons for the
same and plan suitable corrective actions for the
next round.
• If the achievement exceeds the planned target, we
need to “raise the bar”! Further, we need to
examine:
• If the targets set were too easy; if so, we need
to raise the bar in a realistic fashion
• If the targets set were reasonable, then we need
to plan for achieving the new target level.

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Closing the Loop (cont’d)
• This concept of Quality Loop operates at all levels
of attainment of outcomes. Will be discussed
elaborately in later sessions.
• At Course Level:
• Target levels of attainment of Course Outcomes
(COs) are set; Course is delivered; actual
attainment of COs is determined; AND
• the loop is closed either by increasing the target
level for the next offering of the course or
• by planning suitable improvements in the
teaching /learning process to increase the actual
attainment so as to reach the target

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Closing the Loop (cont’d)
• At PO, PSO Level:
• POs and PSOs are achieved through formal
courses and other co-curricular and extra-
curricular activities
• Target levels of attainment of POs and PSOs are
set; Program is delivered; actual attainment of
POs and PSOs is determined; AND
• the loop is closed either by increasing the target
level for the next cycle of the program or
• by planning suitable improvements in all the
relevant activities to increase the actual
attainment

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Closing the Loop (cont’d)
• “Closing the loop” can be carried out, in a similar
manner, at the level of PEOs also!
• This concept applies even at higher levels of
Mission and Vision though the time frames involved
are usually much larger!
• Thus Mission is revisited typically once in 5 to 6
years.
• It is much rarer to revisit the Vision in less than
about 7 to 10 years!

This process view of Quality is implicitly central to

Accreditation

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CO Attainment Process
1. First map your subject’s COs with POs and PSOs through
Knowledge Level [K Level] defined by Bloom and
Anderson
2. If you have more than one CO, average the values
across each PO and PSO.
3. CO Direct Attainment = 80% of Uty Results + 20% of
Indirect Assessment
Indirect Assessment is arrived from Course exit Survey
for all subjects at the end of each semester.
4. Fix a target level of attainment (Usually 3)
5. Overall CO Attainment = 80% of CO DA + 20% of CO
IDA
6. If your CO attainment is below target level, there is a
gap.
7. If your CO attainment exceeds your target level, raise
your target level!
PO Attainment Process
• Like CO Attainment Process, PO Attainment Process
is also split up into
– Direct Attainment
– Indirect Attainment
– PO Direct Attainment =
(CO mapping strength x CO Attainment) / 3
PO Indirect Attainment is gathered from
Alumni Survey
Student Exit Survey
Employer Survey
Overall PO Attainment =
Step 1: Map your COs with POs
CO Direct Attainment Calculation
• Let us say Internal test pass percentage is 72%
(Attainment level is 2)
• Uty exam % in C210 is 83% (Attainment level is 3)
• CO Direct attainment = 20% of Internal Test marks
+ 80 % of Uty exam results
= 0.2 x 2 + 0.8 x 3 = 2.8
• Let us say Course Exit Survey average is 2.21
• Therefore, OVERALL CO ATTAINMENT is
20% of IDA + 80% of DA
= 0.2 x 2.21 + 0.8 x 2.8
= 0.442 + 2.24
= 2.68
PO Attainment Calculation
PO Direct Attainment =
(CO-PO mapping strength x CO attainment) / 3
Example: From the CO-PO Matrix, for PO1, Average is 2.4.
We know CO Attainment is 2.68
Therefore, PO Direct Attainment = 2.4 x 2.68 / 3
= 2.14
Let us say Indirect Attainment from Alumni Survey,
Employer Survey, Student Exit Survey is 2.28

Overall PO Attainment = 20% of IDA + 80% of DA

= 0.2 x 2.28 + 0.8 x 2.14
= 0.46 + 1.72 = 2.18
PO Attainment Gap = Target level – PO Attainment
= 3 – 2.18 = 0.82
Take appropriate action to fill the gap.
Taxonomy of Teaching,
Learning and Assessment
• Dimensions of Learning
– Cognitive
• Cognitive Processes
• Knowledge Categories
• Affective (Emotion)
• Psychomotor
– All three dimensions are involved to varying
degrees in all experiences and activities
• Spiritual
Cognitive Processes

• Anderson/Bloom’s Taxonomy
– Remember
– Understand
– Apply
– Analyze
– Evaluate
– Create
Remember
– Remembering involves retrieving relevant
knowledge from long-term memory
– The relevant knowledge may be factual,
conceptual, procedural, or some
combination of these
– Remembering knowledge is essential for
meaningful learning and problem solving as
that knowledge is used in more complex
tasks
– Action verbs: Recognize, recall, list,
mention, state, draw, label, define, name,
describe, prove a theorem etc.
Understand
– We are said to understand when
we are able to construct meaning
from instructional messages
– Instructional messages can be
verbal, pictorial/ graphic or
symbolic
– Instructional messages are
received during lectures,
demonstrations, field trips,
performances, or simulations, in
books or on computer monitors
Action verbs for ‘Understanding’

– Interpret: translate, paraphrase,

represent and clarify
– Exemplify: Illustrate and instantiate
– Classify: Categorize and subsume
– Summarize: Generalize and abstract
– Infer: Find a pattern
– Compare: Contrast, match, and map
– Explain: Construct a model
Apply
– Using procedures to perform exercises
or solve problems
– Closely linked with procedural
knowledge
• Action verbs:
– Execute/Implement: determine,
calculate, compute, estimate, solve,
draw, relate, modify, etc.
Analyze

• Involves breaking material into its constituent

parts and determining how the parts are
related to one another and to an overall
structure
– Differentiate: Discriminate, differentiate,
focus and select (Distinguishing relevant
parts or important parts from unimportant
parts of presented material)
– Organize: Structure, integrate, find
coherence, outline, and parse (Determine
how elements fit or function within a
structure)
– Attribute: Deconstruct (Determine a point
of view, bias, values, or intent underlying
presented material
Analyse activities
– refining generalizations and avoiding oversimplifications
– developing one’s perspective: creating or exploring
beliefs, arguments, or theories
– clarifying issues, conclusions, or beliefs
– developing criteria for evaluation: clarifying values and
standards
– evaluating the credibility of sources of information
– questioning deeply: raising and pursuing root or
significant questions
– clarifying arguments, interpretations, beliefs, or theories
– reading critically: clarifying or critiquing texts
– examining or evaluating assumptions
– distinguishing relevant from irrelevant facts
– making plausible inferences, predictions, or
interpretations
– giving reasons and evaluating evidence and alleged facts
– recognizing contradictions
– exploring implications and consequences
Analysis in Engineering
– Use of the verb ‘analyze’ in engineering
is bit tricky
– It is not easy to design any questions in
this category in limited time written
examinations
– Analyse activities can be included in
assignments related to case studies,
projects, term papers and field studies
Evaluate
– Make judgments based on criteria and
standards
– Criteria used include quality, effectiveness,
efficiency and consistency
– The standards may be either quantitative or
qualitative
Action Verbs
– Check: Test, detect, monitor, coordinate
• Critique: Judge (Accuracy, adequacy,
appropriateness, clarity, cohesiveness,
completeness, consistency, correctness, credibility,
organization, reasonableness, reasoning,
relationships, reliability, significance, standards,
usefulness, validity, values, worth, criteria, standards,
and procedures)
Create
– Involves putting elements together to form
a coherent or functional whole
– While it includes objectives that call for
unique production, also refers to objectives
calling for production that students can and
will do
• Action verbs:
– Generate: Classify systems, concepts, models,
explanations, generalizations, hypotheses,
predictions, principles, problems, questions,
stories, theories)
– Plan (design)
– Produce
Critical Thinking
– Critical thinking refers to the deep, intentional and
structured thinking process that is aimed at
analyzing and conceptualizing information,
experiences, observation, and existing knowledge
for the purpose of creating original and creative
solutions for the challenges encountered
– Critical thinking is systematic and holistic in the
sense that while examining a proposed solution, it
examines its impact and consequences on other
parts of the system thus ensuring that a solution
at one level of the system does not create
challenges and difficulties somewhere else
– Thinking critically requires a positive open and fair
mindset that is able to objectively examine the
available information and is aware of the laid
assumptions and limitations brought about by
them.
– Critical thinking is the art of analyzing and
evaluating thinking with a view to improving it
Problem Solving

– Problem solving involves Apply,

Analyze, Evaluate and Create processes
Nature of Engineering Courses
– The frameworks with in which majority of
engineering and engineering science
courses are dealt with are fairly well
defined
– Solution of open ended problems is
attempted in engineering programs mostly
through projects and sometimes through
assignments where time for solving is not a
major limitation
– Assessment items in class tests and end-
semester examinations dominantly belong
to the Remember, Understand and Apply
cognitive levels
HOTS (Higher Order Teaching
Skills)
• Higher Orders of Learning/ Deep
Learning/Meaningful Learning
– Apply (Implement)
– Analyze
– Evaluate
– Create
Categories of Knowledge
Knowledge
– The problem of characterizing
knowledge is an enduring
question of philosophy and
psychology
– Knowledge is organized and
structured by the learner in line
with a cognitivist - constructivist
tradition
– Knowledge is domain specific and
contextualized
• General Categories
– Factual
– Conceptual
– Procedural
– Metacognitive
•
• Categories specific to Engineering
– Fundamental Design Principles
– Criteria and Specifications
– Practical Constraints
– Design Instrumentalities
• Factual Knowledge
– Basic elements students must know if they are
to be acquainted with the discipline or solve
any of the problems in it
– Exists at a relatively low level of abstraction
• Subtypes of Factual Knowledge
– Knowledge of terminology (e.g., words,
numerals, signs, pictures)
– Knowledge of specific details (including
descriptive and prescriptive data) and elements
• Samples of ‘Factual’ Knowledge
– Terminology: Signal-to-noise ratio, low-pass
filter, VCVS, CCCS, power factor etc.
Specific details:
• Power supply frequency in India is 50 Hz
• Semiconductor devices fail above 120OC
• Ball grid array packaging can provide for more
that 200 input-output pins
• TI and Analog Devices are two semiconductor
manufacturers making a wide variety of
analog ICs
Conceptual Knowledge
– A concept denotes all of the entities,
phenomena, and/or relations in a given
category or class by using definitions.
– Concepts are abstract in that they omit the
differences of the things in their extension
– Classical concepts are universal in that they
apply equally to everything in their
extension.
– Concepts are also the basic elements of
propositions, much the same way a word is
the basic semantic element of a sentence.
• Includes
– knowledge of categories and
classifications, and the relationships
between and among them
– schemas, mental models, or implicit or
explicit theories
• Schemas and models, and theories represent
– how a particular subject matter is
organized and structured
– how the different parts or bits of
information are interconnected and
interrelated in a more systematic manner
– how these parts function together
Procedural Knowledge
– is the “knowledge of how” to do
something
– it often takes the form of a series or
sequence of steps to be followed.
– includes knowledge of skills,
algorithms, techniques, and methods,
collectively known as procedures
– also includes knowledge of the criteria
used to determine when to use various
procedures
– is specific or germane to particular
subject matters or academic disciplines
Examples of Conceptual
Knowledge

– Force, acceleration, velocity, mass,

voltage, current, temperature, entropy,
stress, strain
– Kirchhoff’s laws
– Laws of thermodynamics
Metacognitive Knowledge
– is knowledge about cognition in general as
well as awareness of and knowledge about
one’s own cognition
• Categories of Meta-cognitive knowledge
– Assessing the task at hand
– Evaluating one’s own strengths and
weaknesses
– Planning an appropriate approach
– Applying strategies and monitoring
performance
– Reflecting and adjusting one’s own
approach
– Beliefs about intelligence and learning
Fundamental Design Concepts
• Operational principles of devices, and
components within a device
• Examples
– A device can perform a variety of tasks by
incorporating memory into it.
– A device that has two well defined states
can be used as a memory unit.
– Stepping movement can be created through
interaction between two salient magnetic
fields.
– An airfoil, by virtue of its shape, in
particular its sharp trailing edge, generates
lift when inclined at an angle to the air
stream.
Criteria and Specifications
– It is necessary to translate the qualitative
goals for the device into specific,
quantitative goals.
– Design criteria vary widely in perceptibility
• Examples
– Any power converter should have efficiency
above 95%.
– The speed control unit for the dc motor
should not create excessive harmonic
distortion on the power line.
– The SMPS output should have an output
regulation of 0.5%.
– The speed of the dc motor should be
controlled over a speed range of 1 to 300
RPM with an accuracy of 0.05%.
Practical Constraints
• an array of less sharply defined
considerations derived from experience in
practice, considerations that frequently do not
lend themselves to theorizing, tabulation, or
programming into a computer.
• Examples
– The legend should be written above the
switch on the front panel
– The indicator lamp should be above the
switch
– The clearances that must be allowed
between physical parts in equipment for
tools and hands to reach different parts
– The design should be completed within two
months
Design Instrumentalities
– Procedural knowledge including the
procedures, way of thinking and
judgmental skills by which design is done.
• Examples
– Top-down approach to the design of a
product
– Phasing of development of a product
– Structuring of an electronic product
– Design walkthroughs.
– Identify all members of the team early on
and include every member in the group
communications from the outset.
Taxonomy Table
– It is a table of six cognitive processes
(columns) and eight categories of
knowledge (rows).
– Each cell represents a specific
combination of cognitive process and a
category of knowledge.
Taxonomy Table (Anderson-Bloom-
Vincenti)
Cognitive Processes
Knowledge Categories
Remember Understand Apply Analyze Evaluate Create

Factual

Conceptual

Procedural
Fundamental Design
principles
Criteria & Specifications

Practical Constraints

Design instrumentalities
Metacognitive
Psychomotor domain

– It includes physical movement,

coordination, and use of the motor-skill
areas. (Simpson, 1972)
– Development of these skills requires
practice and is measured in terms of
speed, precision, distance, procedures,
or techniques in execution.
•
Affective Domain

– Proposed in 1956 by Krothwohl, Bloom,

and Masia
– Difficult to structure
– Catch all: self-concept, motivation,
interests, attitudes, beliefs, values, self-
esteem, morality, ego development,
feelings, need achievement, locus of
control, curiosity, creativity,
independence, mental health, personal
growth, group dynamics, mental
imagery and personality
Relation between the three
domains

– Cognitive, affective and psychomotor

activities are not independent of one
another
– Instruction needs to pay attention to
these dependencies
Thank You

njraoiisc@gmail.com; rajani341949@yahoo.com

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