The systematic development of rubrics in assessing engineering learning outcomes

Assessing student learning outcomes becomes more critical than ever to all universities in Hong Kong as the higher education system is migrating from the current three-year undergraduate curriculum to the four-year curriculum in the fall of 2012. This paper introduces an assessment plan developed in the School of Engineering at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to gather evidence on student learning outcomes through both internal and external stakeholders over a complete cycle. A number of surveys for different stakeholders are purposefully aligned to allow comparison between the two cohorts of students as well as among students, faculty, and employers. Assessment rubrics are systematically developed and embedded in all surveys and the assessment of capstone experience to facilitate a meaningful interpretation of results.