A student-centered feedback control model of the educational process

ABET 2000 requires new approaches to quality control and continuous improvement in engineering programs. It is instructive to analyze this control in terms familiar to the engineering community and to consider the implications for classroom and program level practices. A common approach to program assessment is to monitor success statistically. This is analogous to using statistical process control with the educational program as the process and students as the inputs and outputs. It can identify problems but not suggest solutions. The paper explores an alternative view in which the student is the process and performance on program outcomes is the output. It models ABET 2000 and other outcome based education methods in these terms and points out consequences for assessment and instruction. Feedback control of learning as a student-centered process explains why certain instructional and assessment techniques are "best practices" and requires a significant departure from traditional methods.