Implementation and Evaluation of Competency Based Curriculum for Engineer’s Education

Abstract

The Engineering Education in the world is transforming. This transformation is trying to answer to the XXI century requirements of the engineering graduates. Several studies show that today engineering graduates don’t have the characteristics that society is demanding from them. A competence based curricula is one of the possible ways to solve this problem. The paper justified the use of this type of curriculum in engineering education, and shows examples of universities that are using it. A model of competence based curriculum is presented, that was designed in the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering College, in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. This model is the product of the adaptation process, based on expert’s recommendations and other models. It includes an evaluation system that obtains information from three sources: student’s opinions, comparison of qualifications with traditional courses, and university survey, considered an external evaluator. The results of this evaluation permit to do a positive appraisal of the experience. It is shown that the indicators of the qualifications obtained are not lower that traditional courses and that the acceptance of students is superior. It has been possible to detect opportunity areas and take measures to eradicate them, from the results of evaluation. The shown experience may be useful for other institutions with similar transformation curriculum intentions in engineering education.

Keywords

• competencia
• currículo
• evaluación
• aprendizaje
• ingeniería.