A Knowledge/Skills/Competence Descriptor Based Graduate Grading System for CDIO Programs

A Knowledge/Skills/Competence Descriptor Based Graduate Grading System for CDIO Programs

A. Costa, A. Martins (2011).  A Knowledge/Skills/Competence Descriptor Based Graduate Grading System for CDIO Programs. 12.

This paper discusses the problem of graduate grading and proposes a descriptor based grading system more suited to CDIO compliant engineering programs. It compliments the cumulative grade point average (used in Portugal) by a set of three descriptors that individually describe proficiency in program Knowledge, Skills and Competence, aiming to improve professional/social recognition of graduates and to facilitate the profiling of those graduates by employers.

The proposed solution for the Informatics Engineering bachelor program is based on three distinct categories of curricular units, mapping one-to-one with Knowledge, Skills and Competence. The solution also addresses issues like "engineering is much more than knowing things", "engineering schools' diplomas essentially endorsed knowledge", and "employers disregard global grade average indicators". It can be seen as a natural consequence of CDIO adoption, understandable by stakeholders and simple to operate. 

Applying the new descriptor based grading system to a significant sample of graduates allowed the identification of a few dominant "graduate stereotypes", each one with its own balance between Knowledge, Skills and Competence. In the near future we envisage this grading system to improve graduate profiling and hiring by employers...

Authors (New): 
Antonio Manuel Cardoso Costa
Angelo Manuel Rego Silva Martins
Pages: 
12
Affiliations: 
Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), Portugal
Keywords: 
CDIO
Informatics
Grades
Grading system
Year: 
2011
Reference: 
The CDIO Initiative. http://www.cdio.org : 
Costa, A. and Martins, A., " Three years of CDIO/ACM based informatics Engineering Undergraduate Program at ISEP", 6th International CDIO conference, June 15-18, 2010. École Polytechnique de Montréal, Accessed 7-April-2011: 
Wikipedia, Grading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_(education) Accessed 7-April-2011: 
Crawley, E., Malmqvist, J., Ostlund, S., Brodeur, D., Rethinking Engineering Education – The CDIO Approach, Springer, 2007.: 
J. M. Juran, How to Think About Quality, Juran's Quality Handbook, 5th edition, J. M. Juran et. al Blanton Godfrey (edit) McGraw-Hill New York 1999. pp 2.1- 2.18: 
Martins, A., Sampaio, A. and Costa, A., "Software Development Process at LEI-ISEP" 5th International CDIO conference, June 7-10, 2009, Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore.: 
The European Qualification Framework, European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/ Accessed 10-April-2011: 
The Diploma Supplement, European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/ Accessed 10-April-2011: 
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