2009 International Conference on Engineering Education (lCEED 2009), December 7-S, 2009, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Emphasizing OBE in UTeM Subjects to Develop Human Capital

Zaiton Binti Abdul Mutalip

UTeM

Norihan Binti Abdul Hamid

UTeM

Nurmala Irdawaty Binti Hassan

UTeM Malacca, Malaysia

zaiton@utem.edu.my Malacca, Malaysia

Norihan.hamid@utem.edu.my Malacca, Malaysia

irdawaty@utem.edu.my

Abstract-Malaysian Engineering Education Model (MEEM)

(2000) has lined out the pathway for engineering schools in all institutions of higher learning to adopt the outcome-based education (OBE). Unfortunately, the spirit of MEEM is not fully comprehended and recommended. In 2004, as Engineering

Accreditation Council of Malaysia enforced the use of OBE, all institutions of higher learning introduced and adopted OBE in all learning and teaching activities. In line with it, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) has also introduced OBE during teaching and learning processes. All teaching staffs and

students are directly involved with this. As for the students, they have been introduced with OBE from the day they registered, in all teaching and learning activities until they graduated. Teaching staffs are required to produce the Program Outcomes (PO) and Learning Outcomes (LO) in every teaching plan. This paper is mainly focus on first year to fourth year students of Bachelor of Electronic Engineering (Telecommunication) or simplified as BENT, Faculty of Electronic and Computer

Engineering (FKEKK). Two methods has been used; the direct and indirect surveys. The result from the survey has shown that the emphasis OBE in every subject has successfully produced the

required human capital.

Keywords-component-Outcome Based Generic Skill; Program Outcome; Stakeholders; Human Capital

Education (OBE); Learning Outcome;

I. INTRODUCTION

In 1 996, Ministry of Higher Education has decided to shorten courses duration in Malaysian public university from four and five years to three and four year. This, to comply the highly skill workers demand at that time. However, by shortening the program duration, results worse graduate quality furthermore they are unable to graduate on time. There are many adverse comments regarding the decision especially from Institution of Engineer Malaysia (IEM), as there is no specific research being done regarding these consequences. Things are getting worst when some of the program is not accredited and most engineering schools have to extend the duration to three and the half years. Resulting from this, there are lots of jobless graduate. Feedback from stakeholders said most of the graduates are lack of generic skills and refused to employ them.

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As a solution, Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) under the preview of Board of Engineers Malaysia has steering the OBE [1 ]. OBE is an educational process that emphasis achieving specified outcome in terms of individual study learning. The specified outcome relates knowledge, skills and attitudes. OBE is an essential requirement for Malaysian institution to become a full signatory member of multinational agreement for the mutual recognition of engineering bachelor degree i.e. Washington Accord [2]. Washington Accord is an international agreement responsible for accrediting engineering degree programs. The initiatives taken by EAC are also in line with worldwide education paradigm shift. EAC introduced eleven generic attributes for engineering graduates in 1999[1 ].

The eleven generic attributes refers to science, mathematics and engineering knowledge (pO 1 ), ability in depth technical competence (P02), problems identification and problem solving (P03), ability to utilize systems approach to design and evaluate (P04), understanding the principles of sustainable design and development (P05), understanding, responsible and commit with professional ethic (P06), communication skill (P07), teamwork and leadership (POS), understanding of the social, cultural, global and environmental responsibilities (P09), life-long learning (POlO) and entrepreneurship (POll) [3]. EAC also acts as an accreditation awarding body for all engineering program in Malaysia. Therefore, emphasis of OBE has been lined out in order to achieve national vision. Nevertheless, every Program Educational Outcome (PEO), PO and LO performs need to be analyzed and continuous quality improvement (CQI) should be done for future enhancement.

UTeM is one of the universities that adopted OBE in order to fulfill national mission to produce human capital that can compete globally [4]. This paper refers on how to produce highly skilled human capital by emphasizing PO and LO in UTeM subjects which aspires the nation.

II. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This paper is mainly focus on first year to fourth year of BENT students, FKEKK, UTeM. The research has divided into two parts; direct survey and indirect survey. The evaluation marks of the survey are total up and converted into

2009 International Conference on Engineering Education (ICEED 2009), December 7-8, 2009, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

percentage. Then, the results are illustrated in pie and bar charts so that the analysis can be thoroughly done.

A. Direct Survey

Direct survey has categorized into two components which is student assessment survey and end of semester survey. Student assessment survey covers the whole semester coursework and the final examination. The coursework includes individual and group quiz, test, assignment, mini project, presentation and laboratory report. This coursework will also evaluate student's soft skills in every assessment made.

End of semester survey evaluates the achievements of PO and LO fixed by the lecturer at the beginning of the semester. It ranked from five (the highest) and one (the lowest). The percentage of direct survey is the average of students' assessment survey and end of semester survey.

B. Indirect Survey

Indirect survey is also divided into two; industrial attachment survey and alumni survey. Industrial survey is carried out during the sixth semester, when the students are performing their industrial training. Industrial training is compulsory in order to fulfill the requirement of bachelor degree program. Students will undergo a 20 weeks training that carries 12 credit hours. Industrial survey consists of three elements; working skill, technical knowledge and communication skill set according to UTeM's guidelines based on OBE approach. Each skill weighted 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest). Industry panel evaluated each skills accordingly based on student's performance during the training.

Alumni survey can only be conducted four years after the students graduate. As for this research, the fourth year students will be graduated by middle of 2009. Therefore, alumni survey will be conducted in 2012. Results for alumni survey will be analyzed once the survey has been conducted.

III. RESULTS ANALYSIS

The results are analyzed in detail based on Year of study and overall analysis for the whole BENT program. The results are as follows.

A. Year One

Similar to all public univerSItieS, Year One subject is emphasis to university compulsory subjects, program core subjects and generic skills development course. Hence, the focus on POI and P02 is significance. The highlight is on the knowledge of science, mathematics and engineering.

Figure 1 shows that the percentage for PO 1 is smaller compared to P02. This is related to the direct assessment done which concentrates on theoretical questions during laboratory session, quizzes and tests. Concentration on calculations compared to basic theoretical concept also gives the impact to the result obtained.

It can be concluded that the PO for Year One students are concentrating on applying in depth technical competence in a specific electronic engineering discipline and also the knowledge of science, mathematics and engineering.

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B. Year Two

First Year Program Outcomes Score

Figure I. Year One POs Analysis

Most of the subjects offered in Year Two are the program core subjects. The survey conducted is the direct survey concentrating on PO 1, P02, P03 and P04.

Second Year Program Outcomes Score

Figure 2. Year Two POs Analysis

The four concentrating POs for Year Two is as in Figure 2. The highest score is P02 with 32%, while the lowest is P04 with 16%. The factor influencing the score is that the survey result is being extracted from student assessments mark. Most of the quizzes, tests and examination questions refer to calculation and engineering concept. No design and development concept is being introduced in Year Two. Therefore, students are not exposed to ability to utilize systems approach to design and evaluate operational performance.

The Control Principle and Microprocessor Technology subjects are identified as the subjects that influencing the lowest percentage of P04. Control Principle is about controlling the system and Microprocessor Technology involves a lot of programming. Students seem do not understand the correlation of these two subjects in their course. They registered for the subjects because it is a compulsory program core subjects.

Based on the results it can be concluded that Year Two students are only able to master their skill in telecommunication electronics, identity and solving problems that they learned during teaching and learning activities compared to circuit design and analysis.

2009 International Conference on Engineering Education (ICEED 2009), December 7-8, 2009, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

C. Year Three

Direct and indirect surveys have been done to Year Three students. Direct survey is conducted during Semester 1 and indirect survey in Semester 2 as they were off for industrial training.

Industrial training is compulsory for bachelor degree students and the duration is 1 semester (20 weeks). The main objectives are to expose the students to working environments and giving the chance to apply what have they learned in UTeM. The industry contribution is also taken into consideration as they evaluate student performance, competency, technical and generic skills during the 20 weeks training.

Third Year Program Outcomes Score POlO

0%

POG pas % %

Figure 3. Year Three POs Analysis

Nearly 70% of faculty and university outlined PO is being realized in Year Three. Referring to Figure 3, P02, P07, P08 and P09 contributes more than 15%. P07, P08 and P09 have been developed by the student tIlemselves. The generic skills has been built up and applied during the training, where they need to work as a team, communicate with each other and responsible in whatever they do. P02 also contributed highest percentage as students started to apply their technical knowledge in tile respective field.

There are no principles of sustainable design and development as well as lifelong learning values can be evaluate during Year Three. Therefore no P05 and PO 1 0 are being involved. The professional ethics (P06) is also not fully applied.

D. Year Four

Figure 4 shows the entire outlined PO that been assessed. This is proven by the survey conducted and students' perception on the POs and LOs. The percentage for almost all the POs is 11 % except for PO 1, P03 and P04 which scores between 7 to 8%. Subjects taken during Year Four are focus on personal development, such as fmal year project, third language, engineering ethics and techno-entrepreneurship which focus on generic skills instead of technical knowledge and problems solving. Figure 4 also summarized that almost 70% of the PO is successfully achieved.

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Fourth Year Program Outcomes Score

P03 8%

Figure 4. Year Four POs Analysis

E. Overall Analysis

The overall PO analysis for BENT students from Year One to Four is illustrated in Figure 5. Generally, only POI and P02 are involves for Year One students. In Year Two, the highlight is given to POI to P04. 70% of the POs are applicable to Year Three students and all POs are relevant to fmal year students.

POlO

P09

POS ,

P07

P06

POS

P04

P03

P02

POI

00

Program Outcomes Versus Score

For Bachelor of Electronic Engineering (Telecommunication)

20.0 40.0 600 800 100.0

ScOfe("1

• 4th Year

.3rdYear

• 2nd Year

.1stYeolr

Figure 5. PO Analysis for whole year of BENT

Generally, Year One students scores 65% for POI and 99.8% for P02. Both POs exceed the target as set in the key performance indicator (KPI) which is 65%.

The detail percentage for Year Two students shows that POI to P03 successfully achieved the KPI. Unfortunately, P04 scores 24% below KPI. P04 is stressing on the ability to utilize systems approach to design and evaluate operational performance but all the second year subjects is still

2009 International Conference on Engineering Education (lCEED 2009), December 7-8, 2009, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

concentrating on the program core subjects. Therefore, students are not exposed to design and evaluation of the design operationality. P02 attained highest percentage, 82.8% as the subjects in Year Two stills concentrate on the in-depth of electronic discipline which involves a lot of calculations.

Most of Year Three POs is better than the KPI by scoring more than 70%. The direct and indirect surveys give the advantages for this score. The average of PO analyzed is exceed 70%. Hence, the POs score are excellent and nearly achieved the industry requirements.

As seen in Figure 5, the performance of Year Four is impressive because majority of the POs score more than 90%. These mean Year Four POs exceed 25% the KPI percentage. Regrettably, POI and P02 only scores 59.3% and 69.9% respectively. This is because final year students concentrate on their final year project, self development and other generic skills subjects. In addition, there are three complicated subjects in Year Four, which are RF Technique, Microwave and Telecommunication Switching. These subjects require detail calculation, complex design and analysis. Student needs strong knowledge to be successful in those subjects.

IV. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

In conclusion, more than 70% of every subject POs is successfully achieved. This is proven as all direct survey exceeds the KPI of 65%. The indirect survey scores nearly perfect which is 99.9% or average of 92.11 %.

Consequently, once BENT students graduated from UTeM, they are all prepared to meet the industry need. From this research, it is proven that the outlined PEO, PO, LO and generic skill for every subject helps students to develop themselves. In other words, the emphasis of teaching and learning based on OBE is preparing the qualified human capital and able to meet the future needs.

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The increasing demand of highly skilled human capital, competence and good values as stated in technical human capital needs RMK 9 (2006-2010) is slowly realized [5][6]. Hopefully, UTeM would be able to produce more excellent and brilliant human capital in order to fulfill national mission and vision.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First of all we would to thanks the Head of Department Telecommunication for the survey compilation, secondly to our team member of this research for the time, dedication, attention and contribution during this research. Last but not least to our family for their understanding and caring during completion of this paper.

REFERENCES

[I] A A Aziz, MJ. Megat Mohd Noor, AA Abang Ali, and M.S. Jafar, "A Malaysian Outcome-based Engineering Education Model," in lot Journal of Eng. and Tech, Vol 2, Nol, 2005, pp. 14-21.

[2] A Sher, "Outcome-based Education in the way of the 21st Century", New Straits Times, Jun, 3 2009

[3] National Higher Education Plan 2007-2010, Triggered Higher Education Transformation, Ministry of Higher Education, Appendix A, August, 2007

[4] Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, "Pembangunan Pendidikan 2001-2010: Perancangan bersepadu menjana kecemerlangan pendidikan", Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 200 I.

[5] Kajian Separuh Rancangan Malaysia Kesembilan 2006-2010, Berita Harlan, April I, 2006

[6] Pelan Induk Latihan dan Kemahiran Pekerjaan Malaysia 2008-2010 ,

"Tenaga Kerja mahir Memacu Daya Saing Global Malaysia", Kementerian Sumber Manusia, 2008.