Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering
North Dakota State University
Alumni Survey & Employer Surveys (2002-2006)
Methodology: Alumni Survey and Alumni Employer Survey are used to get feedback about our program (IE&M and MfgE) outcomes and long term objectives. We continuously strive to solicit feedback from local industries about what they expect from our graduates and what new educational skills are required to meet their future challenges. Alumni Survey and Alumni Employer Survey are used to assess the level of achievement of our graduates with respect to the program outcomes and objectives one year, two years, and 5 years after graduation.
The two surveys are usually mailed out to alumni to asses the program outcomes and objectives. First survey is for the alumni and the second for the alumni employers. The surveys are also available online at http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/ime/htmls/alumni_advisory_board.htm under Alumni, using "Alumni Survey Form" and "Employer Survey Form" button.
Results: Questions related to the program outcomes are categorized in four separate areas. For the most part, the latest survey results from were 4.0/5.0 or “Well” and 5.0/5.0 or “Very well” in all areas. The alumni graduating less then 5 years identified Question 4 “Understanding of professional, ethical, global, societal, and contemporary issues in engineering and management” as marginal or 3.0/5.0 which is less than the department benchmark of 75%.
Interventions: Possible interventions to remedy the major problem (i.e., Understanding of professional, ethical, global, societal, and contemporary issues in engineering and management) may be: (1) Incorporate broad education perspective in the IME courses dealing with multi-disciplines and integration, and (2) Bring a global perspective to the class room for the senior level classes. Remedies are expected starting Fall 2006.