QUALITY ASSURANCE IN OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION · • The traditional education does not build skills...

QUALITY ASSURANCE IN OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION

M R KURUP

mr_kurup@yahoo.com

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Traditional to OBE

• Almost 80 percent of students in the higher education in India are in the liberal Arts-Science-Commerce streams.

• The traditional education does not build skills to make the graduates directly employable.

• Even majority of professional education is no exception.

• It is time for the mode of education to change from liberal to a purpose-driven ‘Outcome-Based Education’.

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Vision/Mission • The higher education institution’s vision/mission statements

define its distinctive characteristics in terms of addressing the expected institutional / program OUTCOMES.

• KLU Vision: To be a globally renowned university.(?)

• Mission: ‘To impart quality higher education and to undertake research and extension with emphasis on application and innovation that cater to the emerging societal needs through all-round development of students of all sections enabling them to be globally competitive and socially responsible citizens with intrinsic values’.

• The Mission spells out clearly the expected OUTCOMES

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‘Global Competencies’ • ‘Global competencies, as outcome, implies the capacity of a

graduate:

– to analyze relevant global issues – social, economic, technological etc - critically and from multiple perspectives,

– to understand how differences affect perceptions, judgments and ideas of self and others, and

– to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with others from different backgrounds on the basis of shared respect for human dignity

• ‘Global Competence is a multi-dimensional learning domain encompassing ‘knowledge and understanding, skills, values and attitudes’. (OECD, Global Competency for an Inclusive World).

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COMPETENCY BASED EDUCATION (CBE)

• Another approach is Competency Based Education (CBE).

• This refers to a method of organizing learning based on the achievement of predetermined competencies.

• Students demonstrate their competency in given areas either by working through content, experiences and assignments and assessing their mastery by using a portfolio of achievements that illustrate mastery.

(Gartner Inc. Report, December 2016)

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UNESCO’s Learning Objectives

• Competencies as stated above coincides with UNESCO’s Learning Objectives as well; a 4-year graduation program should provide opportunities to gain

– (a) Fundamental Knowledge of the subjects majored in,

– (b) Acquiring job and work place /soft skills, and

– (c) Picking up certain minimum social skills, cultural values and positive attitude.

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Program Package • The question:

Does the curricular, extra and co-curricular and extra mural program package in the institution provide opportunities to develop –

a) critical thinking skills,

b) problem solving skills,

c) decision making skills,

d) communication skills, and

e) technical and socio-cultural skills

to improve self-confidence and direct employability ?

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GC: Institutional Accountability

• Acquiring global competence is a lifelong process

• But, having made the mission statement, it is the ‘responsibility’ of the institution to ensure that a student of four-year graduation program should leave the institution at least as a semi-skilled if not a fully skilled person.

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OBE: ‘Begins with End in Mind’ • Outcomes / Competency Based Education is an effective and

dynamic teaching and learning methodology.

• Once the Outcomes, such as ‘attaining global competencies’, are defined and prefaced to the curriculum, the teachers should follow Stephen Covey’s “begin with the end in mind” approach

• Institutions should set up monitoring and control system to ensure micro and macro, or short and long term activity / program specific Outcomes are achieved.

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Role of IQAC

• The role of IQAC is to act as the institutional ‘think tank’ to develop systems for conscious, consistent and catalytic improvement in and monitoring of the performance of students/ faculty.

• Quality Assurance System for an Outcome Based Higher Education would include the following:-

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QA SYSTEM FOR OBE : THE DO LIST

1. 360o 4-year Integrated Curriculum, unitized into modules with clear ‘preface’ to cover multiple components of the Mission statement

2. Student quality and diversity – attract merit students from India and abroad

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The Do List

3. Globally competitive and stable faculty endowed with academic freedom

4. State-of-the-art physical infrastructure and digital learning resources

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The DO List

5. Participative, ‘active’ and tech-driven teaching-learning process

6. Effective credit based continuous, objective and online evaluation system

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The Do List

7. Mandatory and appropriate Internship with credit

8. Social and neighborhood oriented outreach programs with credit

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The DO List

9. Global and industry networking and linkages

10.Digital Data Management (with back up), MIS and all-inclusive feedback mechanism, including Quality Circles, Kaizen etc with transparent follow up

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The Do List

11. Opportunities for innovative and applied research, IPR, publications in standard/ refereed journals, and consultancy with norms for sharing of resources raised

12.Performance Incentives for faculty and scholarship/freeship for deserving students

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The DO List

13. Effective grievances redressal and Quality monitoring/control mechanism

14.Performance audit /appraisal with accountability

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The Do List

15.Effective leadership and decentralized governance

16.Quality Placement

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Conclusion • Outcome-based education is an approach that bases each

part of an educational system around expected Goals. By the end of the educational experience, each student should have achieved the goal.

• It is for the institutions to introspect whether the above checklist is tested for achievement during a given graduation period. Steps may be taken to strengthen the strengths and weaken the weaknesses.

• Effective and time tested Outcome based education will enhance institutional reputation and make the students globally competitive, directly employable and highly successful and responsible citizens.

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Conclusion • The critiques would argue that OBE comes in

the way of holistic approach to learning. It may come in the way of creativity and liberal thinking and education.

• Learning may be reduced to something that is specific, measurable, and observable. As a result, outcomes are not yet widely recognized as a valid way of conceptualizing what learning is all about.

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Conclusion

• The Liberal and OBE driven education have merits and demerits.

• Therefore, an ideal methodology would be an integration of liberal and OBE to suit the respective curriculum or activity module.

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