Educational program evaluations: rationalizing assessment models and processes for engineering education quality enhancement

International audienceIn engineering education, several reference models of quality are defined by accreditation bodies or quality assurance organisations, at national and international levels. With approaches based on standards, they favour transparency and benchmarking of programs, in line with accountability issues. Quality assessors and program managers have to juggle with such models: grasp all - lose all. As shown by several accreditation system updated requirements, to support continuous improvements in the field of engineering education, reference models to align with tend now to be complemented by assessment models and processes. However, more closer to recommendations or good practices to follow, managing the quality enhancement of an engineering higher education institution still often remains practically informal and subjective. To cope with such challenge, the main contribution of this paper is to analyse three quality frameworks (CDIO, EFQM, and ISO-SPICE) and compare them in the context of quality enhancement. By analysing their respective reference models and assessment processes, it permits to sketch the broad lines of a multimodal and adaptive system to flexibly manage quality in engineering education. This paper will permit readers (i) to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different models for engineering education quality assessment, (ii) to benefit from a global comparison of assessment models and processes and (iii) to grasp an overview of some possible ways of improvement of the CDIO self-assessment approach

Style-Based Model Transformation for Early Extrafunctional Analysis of Distributed Systems

International audienceIn distributed environments, client-server, publish-subscribe, and peer-to-peer architecture styles are largely employed. However, style selection often remains implicit, relying on the designer's know-how regarding requirements. In this paper, we propose a framework to explicitly specify distributed architectural styles, as independent models of the application functionalities. To justify feasibility and further benefits of our approach, we formally define three classical distributed architectural styles in a process calculus. Our proposal then opens up the way to a systematic composition of functional models with architectural style models as an endogenous transformation. Comparative analysis of extrafunctional properties could then be proposed at the early design stages to guide the architect in stylistic choices

Le rôle des héros des tribus sportives dans l'offre des équipementiers de la glisse

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Meta-tools for software language engineering : a flexible collaborative modeling language for efficient telecommunications service design

International audienceThe increasingly competitive environment pressures telecommunications service providers to reduce their concept-to-market time. This time is influenced by a multitude of factors. For the benefit of telecom service designers, this paper focuses on increasing the degree of automation, offering team collaboration capabilities and bridging heterogeneous technologies. To address these factors, we propose a model-based meta-tool approach, which rapidly and iteratively generates particular tools for software languages. Each language is specific to one of the viewpoints involved in the definition of a service, as identified in the Intelligent Network Conceptual Model. A flexible language prototype for service designers, that blends a higher degree of formality with creative freedom, has already been implemented. The integration of first collaboration capabilities, defined and tooled, into this language, by including the rationale behind the designers' decisions, is currently being pursued. A second language prototype, for network designers, together with syntactic and semantic (partial) automatic interoperability between these two viewpoints, are also proposed

A transversal alignment between measurements and enterprise architecture for early verification of telecom service design

International audienceEarly verification of Telecom Services (TS) at the design time helps an enterprise to avoid wasting of implementation cost and time. Simulation provides the designer with helpful feedbacks on TS design leaving the implementation and installation costs behind. Our objective in this paper is to present our approach to obtain valuable feedbacks from network simulators and relate them to the information from high abstract scenario of a TS. Relying on Model Driven Engineering discipline and Enterprise Architecture standard, we propose to associate measurement elements with the design ones of different abstraction levels. We implement a model transformation to generate automatically the configurations for NS-3 simulator as a test-bed for our case studies. We illustrate our approach with a video conference example, presenting the different abstract levels and their relationship with measurements

La valorisation des cours d’eau en Normandie : Un exemple de gouvernance locale

D’inspiration gestionnaire, l’article s’attache à mettre en relief certaines difficultés inhérentes à l’application du concept de développement durable. A partir de l’analyse d’un projet de protection des cours d’eau et de développement du tourisme de pêche en Normandie (France), l’objectif est de souligner certains aspects de la problématique à laquelle sont confrontées les collectivités locales. Ce travail de recherche montre que l’équilibre entre protection des milieux naturels et développement économique dépend de la capacité des acteurs publics et privés à concevoir un mode de gouvernance approprié. La question des formes d’organisation à concevoir ainsi que celle de leur évolution temporelle sont au coeur de la problématique.This paper develops a management perspective and sets out to throw into relief some difficulties inherent in the implementation of the concept of sustainable development. It aims to highlight certain aspects of the problems facing local authorities, on the basis of the analysis of a project bearing on the protection of watercourses and the promotion of fishing tourism in Normandy (France). This research demonstrates that equilibrium between the protection of natural milieus and economic development is dependent on the capacity of public and private stakeholders to establish appropriate methods of governance. The issues of the forms of organisation to be devised, and how they develop over time, are at the heart of the matter

Work-based Learning Models in French Engineering Curricula

International audienceIn the 90s, the French engineering education accreditation body introduced in its quality standards a compulsory internship period. Based on this national experience, this paper presents an in-depth background and description of the use of internships and apprenticeships models in French engineering education. The elements of analysis presented may provide some inputs to programme designers in other contexts. Thus, this paper proposes to extend the CDIO framework to systematically include Work-based Learning as integrated activities in educational programme, to better match industry requirements and student competency expectations as future engineers

Return on Experience from Sustainability Audits in European Engineering Educational Institutions

International audienceSustainability efforts of higher educational institutions in engineering have today a strong influence on their accountability and on continuous improvements of their programs and organization. Following the recent ISO 26000 guidelines promoted for the all types of organizations, accreditation or quality assurance systems for engineering education start to consider sustainability dimensions. In Europe, various initiatives have recently proposed specific dimensions and criteria for evaluation of universities or schools, e.g. the QUESTE-SI LLP Erasmus European project (QUality system of European Scientific and Technical Education - Sustainable Industry), or the Plan Vert validated by the French Ministry of sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to present and analyze the evaluation process for a campus sustainability audit. Based on experienced reporting and evaluations, both from an audited engineering school (i.e. quality referents) and auditor perspectives, the quantitative and quantitative results drawn in the paper should permit institution stakeholders to regularly collect internal sustainability initiatives, track records, in a way to better prepare self-evaluation reports and manage future audit visits. After an overview of some existing international accreditation procedures for higher educational institutions, both in engineering and business, the proposed analysis relies on four 2012 audits, two of them conducted in a French engineering school, and two other conducted in two different European technical universities. Several sustainability dimensions, linked to criteria, are considered and discussed. As an example for the QUESTE-SI label, the audit relied on (i) institution policy and strategy, (ii) social responsibility & sustainable engineering education (SRSE) and curriculum, (iii) student involvement & cultural development in SRSE, and (iv) research & innovation. As findings, apart from the score and ranking results thanks to the evaluations, the audit preparation, reporting and process permits to engage in an internal reflection that should contribute to coherently enhance the research & educational missions and strategies of the institution, so as to favour a national and international recognition of its politics and dynamicity in the area of sustainability issues. Thanks to a clear referential, framework, and guidelines for evaluation based on a systemic interdisciplinary approach, an integrated governance of sustainability dimensions at institutional level can be more flexibility formalized. Based on those results, the paper claims for possible cross-evaluations between institutions as a complement to external evaluations to better organize and institutionalize continuous improvement processes, so as implicate to students as key actors in the change process

Using accreditation criteria for collaborative quality enhancement

International audienceThis paper describes a process to enhance the quality of higher education. At the heart of the process is a cross-sparring collaborative model, whereby institutions are critical friends. This is based on a prior self-evaluation, where the institution / programme identifies quality criteria it wants to improve. Part of the process is to ensure the documentation of best practices so that they can be shared with others in a so called market place. Linking the best practices to a criterion makes them searchable on a large scale. Optimal pairings of institutions can then take place for the cross-sparring activities

Comparison of Hiring and Promotion Criteria Linked to Teaching, Educational Development and Professional Engineering Skills

International audienceWithin the higher education system, criteria for promotion based on research quality and contribution are well established and widely accepted. For teaching, on the other hand, such criteria have generally not been developed and implemented to the same degree. This poses a challenge for the implementation of the Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) standards 9 and 10, which deal with the enhancement of faculty CDIO skills and faculty teaching skills. To be able to implement these standards successfully, universities need to have in place effective ways of evaluating teaching contribution and professional engineering experience. To support the implementation of CDIO standards 9 and 10, excellence in teaching and progressive educational development based on engineering experience must be acknowledged and rewarded. This paper compares hiring and promotion policies and criteria for the evaluation of teaching contribution and educational development in four selected universities in Europe and North America. Conclusions are drawn with regard to the CDIO standards 9 and 10 and perspectives for future development of such criteria discussed