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

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

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

Utilisation d'agents mobiles pour la construction de services distribués

Building a complex distributed service from primitive service applications requires to guarantee non-functional properties like quality of service (e.g. performance, security, dependability). Usually, the mechanisms implemented for interacting with services rely on the client/server scheme. Nowadays, mobile code provides an attractive alternative to these traditional interactions. Our thesis is that mobile agent technology has its place in the engineering of complex distributed services. Actually, interactions combining client/server and mobile agents are suitable to meet quality of service requirements.In this thesis, we propose a functional framework for the specification of service compositions. It addresses remote invocation, remote evaluation and mobile agent interactions. The framework permits to study and compare different interaction choiceswith respect to performance, security, or reliability properties. Associated with analysis tools, it can be integrated within anenvironment which clearly differentiates the architect, designer, and developer roles. This environment relies on the software architecture concept for guiding the designer of complex services in implementation choices. This integration is illustrated within the Aster environment for the development of distributed systems using customization of the execution system with respect to quality properties.La construction d'un service distribué complexe, à partir de services applicatifs primitifs, nécessite de garantir des propriétés qui ne dépendent pas directement des fonctionnalités de l'application telles que les propriétés de qualité de service (p. ex. performance, sécurité ou sûreté de fonctionnement). Le plus souvent, les mécanismes mis en œuvre pour interagir avec les services reposent sur le schémas d'organisation client-serveur. Toutefois, les schémas avec mobilité du code fournissent une alternative intéressante à ces interactions combinant les schémas client-serveur et agents mobiles permettent souvent de mieux répondre aux exigences de qualité de service.Dans cette thèse, nous proposons un cadre fonctionnel pour la spécification de compositions de services. Il prend en compte les interactions de type invocation distante, évaluation distante et agents mobiles. Ce cadre permet l'étude et la comparaison de différents choix d'interactions afin de garantir des contraintes de performance, de sécurité ou encore de fiabilité. Associé à des outils d'analyse, il s'intègre naturellement dans un environnement de construction qui différencie clairement les rôles de l'architecte, du concepteur et de l'équipe de développement. Cet environnement s'appuie sur le concept d'architecture de logiciels afin de guider le concepteur de servies complexes dans les choix de mise en œuvre. Nous illustrons cette intégration avec l'environnement de développement de systèmes distribués Aster qui apporte des techniques de spécialisation du système d'exécution au regard des propriétés de qualité

Le cadre CDIO : un référentiel d'objectifs d'apprentissage orienté activités professionnelles (ingénieurs) et des standards pour accompagner le changement: retour d'expérience comme outil d'amélioration continue à Telecom Bretagne depuis 2008/09

National audienceLes transformations d'un programme de formation d'ingénieur jouent un rôle récurrent et majeur dans l'avenir d'une institution. Une réforme de la formation et de ses pédagogies est une question délicate et stratégique impliquant de l'ingénierie. C'est aussi un défi managérial complexe qui doit surmonter possible de conflits et forces contradictoires. Afin d'être plus réactif et proréactif face aux accréditations nationales et internationales, et pour plus facilement faire face à la résistance aux changements induits par les réformes, Telecom Bretagne, une grande école d'ingénieurs française, a délibérément choisie d'utiliser le cadre CDIO et ses 12 standards comme un outil dynamique d'abord sous un cycle en cascade incrémental. Depuis 2008, notre politique de s'inspirer des standards une étape à la fois, fondée sur un modèle de processus à un rythme supportable, permet de soutenir plus durablement la paix entre les reponsables de programmes, les concepteurs de ces programmes et le personnel enseignant. Nous sommes maintenant en mesure de partager notre expérience sur l'utilisation de certains standards CDIO afin d'améliorer continument la qualité des programmes et mieux répondre aux attentes des organismes d'accréditation, où les partenaires industriels et les étudiants sont des agents forts. Notre approche, instanciés dans deux programmes différents niveaux du master, (i) une taille moyenne sur un programme généraliste à temps plein (650 élèves) et (ii) un programme par apprentissage (120 étudiants), est décrite et analysée. Pour les établissements rencontrant quelques difficultés avec la résistance au changement, nos résultats et les leçons que nous en retirons donneront des conseils pour mieux préparer une amélioration continue basée sur un cycle itératif - plus agile - afin de s'aligner plus régulièrement avec les exigences d'accréditation et les besoins des entreprises en terme d'acquis d'apprentissage