Outcome Based Education

Institute of Public Enterprise (IPE) has imbibed the cardinal values enshrined in the philosophy of Outcome Based Education (OBE) to execute the various academic programs at the institute. We capture below, the essence of OBE and the manner in which the Programs offered at IPE, deploy the key metrics outlined in OBE.

Outcome-based education (OBE) is an educational theory or pedagogy that places students at the centre of an academic program. It presupposes that by the end of a learning session, each student would have attained a level of mastery of the course so as to be in a position to realize on the completion of the course, a standard of achievement. The realization of the standard in all the courses which together constitute a program is the end goal. If through the Course outcomes (COs) in all the courses in the curriculum, certain Program outcomes (POs) are not addressed or attained, then it is said that there are curricular gaps in achieving the POs. These curricular gaps are addressed through co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, which are beyond the curriculum.

In the fulfilling of the desired goal, the teacher is provided considerable latitude. Unlike the past, OBE is a student centric approach and the teacher’s role is to facilitate, guide and mentor.

OBE in the domain of professional management education draws considerably from the Washington Accord. The signatories to the accord signed in 1989 were committed to the development and recognition of good practice in engineering education. As of 2017, the full signatories were Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, China and the United States.

The Washington Accord had laid out a set of Graduate Attributes that students of under graduate Engineering & Technology programs were to exemplify. In a similar manner, the Program Coordinators of the various Management Programs at the Institute of Public Enterprise have outlined program outcomes for the programs that they steward. The realization of the program outcomes makes for the realization of Program Educational Outcomes and that in its train helps in the realization of Mission and Vision of the Institute.

Bloom’s taxonomy is a popularly adopted framework for categorizing educational goals. These are widely used in teaching, learning and assessment, to make students go through various levels incognitive domain of learning. According to revised Bloom’s taxonomy, the levels in cognitive domain are as follows:

1. Remembering :  Recalling from memory of previously learned material.

2. Understanding : Explaining ideas or concepts.

3. Applying :  Using information in another familiar situation.

4. Analyzing : Breaking information into part to explore understandings and relationships.

5. Evaluating : Justifying a decision or course of action.

6. Creating : Generating new ideas, products or new ways of viewing things.

Bloom’s Taxonomy is hierarchical, meaning that learning at the higher level requires that skills at lower level are attained.

 

Over time, educators have come up with a taxonomy of measurable verbs corresponding to each of the Bloom’s cognitive levels. These verbs help to describe and classify observable knowledge, skills and abilities. They also help to frame the examination or assignment questions that are appropriate to the learning level that a teacher is trying to assess in a student. In the AICTE’s published document, “Recommendations for Examination Reforms” the following are the recommended action verbs associated with each taxonomy level.