Continual Quality Improvement in the Assessment of Programme Outcomes in the Engineers and Society Course Integrating SULAM in Malaysia

Abstract

Service-learning courses, aimed at enhancing students’ skills in community activities receive insufficient attention, particularly regarding continual improvement in the assessment aspects within engineering education. This paper presents the continual quality improvement (CQI) in assessment tools used in the Engineers in Society (EIS) course, which integrates a pedagogy known as SULAM (Service-Learning Malaysia University for Society) at a Malaysian engineering programme. The objective of this study is to assess the current CQI actions focusing on the assessment tools for a selected engineering course. A mixed-method approach was employed, consisting of a survey questionnaire administered to 462 final-year civil engineering students taking the EIS course and a document review of course files to analyze lecturers’ suggestions for improving assessment tools. The feedback from the survey shows that most students agreed that the assessment tools are effective. In addition, a longitudinal review was carried out on six (6) cycles of CQI actions (October 2019 to October 2022 semesters), where students’ performance has shown positive trends based on the improvements in two (2) programme outcomes, PO6 (Engineers & Society) with the highest average attainment of 89% and 78% for PO8 (Ethics & Professional Conducts), respectively, highlighting the effectiveness of course assessment tool modification. However, there is a need for further improvement in the assessment tools, particularly to assess PO8. The skewed distribution of grades towards A grades reflected that rubric needs further refinement as an effective assessment tool. Overall, the study provides valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities in the education system and emphasizes the importance of CQI to ensure that students are well-equipped to become responsible public intellectuals capable of addressing society's challenges.