Curriculum reform in the context of EC 2000

In the fall 1997, we began a curriculum review with the goal to design curricula that provide our students with the best possible engineering education, are truly four year curricula (approximately 128 semester credit hours), meet or exceed the ABET Engineering Criteria 2000, are outcomes based, and bring our liberal arts requirements in line with the University common core curriculum. For an existing course to remain in a program or for a new course to be added the answer to the following questions had to be affirmative: is the material essential for students in the program? Does the course address the program outcomes listed in the EC 2000 or the University common curriculum? In a four year degree program, is this the best use of the credits assigned to this course? This curriculum review/revision has been part of a school-wide effort to develop, implement, and institutionalize an assessment plan. The assessment plan provides our school with a road map to continually improve the quality of our programs. In this article we present: (a) our interpretation of the EC 2000 with a focus on criteria 2 and 3, (b) an overview of a step-by-step assessment plan to make our degree programs EC 2000 compliant, and (c) a curriculum development process that addresses the EC 2000 program outcomes as well as our institution's special characteristics.