A Comprehensive Plan for Undergraduate Civil Engineering Program Assessment

In these days of doing more with less, engineering educators have demands from accreditation authorities, state higher education offices, and even their own universities for comprehensive assessment systems of their degree programs. A good assessment program includes input and evaluation from each of the constituencies or "shareholders" of a degree program as to the achievement of the program objectives, and must generate results to improve the effectiveness of the program. This paper presents the assessment plan of an undergraduate civil engineering program at a small state-supported college. The plan was prepared to meet the requirements of both ABET-EAC and the Commonwealth of Virginia, and contains several innovative features.