Triple-Helix and International Collaboration to Design and Implement an Outcomes Based Engineering Curriculum to Better Serve Stakeholders in Valparaiso-Chile

摘要

Following an approach that has been pursued by many engineering programs that are outcomes based accredited, this paper describes the process of designing and implementing the curricula in the College of Engineering of the Universidad de Valparaiso in Chile, using a backwards design approach and also focusing on addressing stakeholders' needs through students' outcomes. Driven by the Chilean government through funding from MINEDUC (its educational development branch), this University has undertaken the task to completely revamp its engineering curricula by engaging faculty, students and industry, together with international collaborators from Argentina, Puerto Rico and Spain. A specific challenge for this redesign is the low performance of Chilean secondary students in international science and mathematics tests, that is tackled by putting an S.T.E.M. emphasis in the overall process. Using the mentioned backwards design approach, the multi-disciplinary, multi-national, multi-stakeholder team will share the process of establishing University-wide learning outcomes, as well as specific outcomes for the engineering program benchmarked through a very novel method and validated by industry and employers' representatives. The authors will describe their motivations, aspirations and work currently being implemented in the College of Engineering that has also cascaded through the whole University, as well as the lessons learned, challenges, and successes along the road. In addition, the approach for faculty buy-in and capacity building of the new learning/teaching methodologies, outcomes assessment and continuous quality improvement strategies and the internal sharing of the most effective practices will be described. The authors believe that the process outlined in this paper can help worldwide institutions adopt similar strategies for better serving their constituents.