Global Journal of Researches in Engineering Vol. 10 Issue 1 (Ver 1.0), April 2010 Page | 59 GJRE Classification (FOR) 091503, 130306, 130313 & 130103 An Innovative Approach for Quality Improvement in Engineering Education Rupesh Gupta α ,T.K.Garg €, Sheifali Gupta Ω , Ajay Goel £ Abstract - Since the quality of university education has become a subject of major concern, it has become evident that universities will have to board on systematic quality if they want to survive in the global education market. In this paper, a statistical process control model is developed for monitoring, control and improvement of the teaching process and learning outcomes. This model has considered lectures, tutorials and laboratory experiments as the most common constituents of an engineering undergraduate course. Using this approach, universities are able to make the claim for exceptional student performance and/or disprove the claims that their instructional systems are the cause of poor student performance. A case study regarding the issue discussed has illustrated a remarkable reduction of critical students' errors in a mechanical engineering laboratory. Keywords- Background Knowledge Probe (BKP), Classroom Assessment Techniques (CAT), Total Quality Management (TQM I. INTRODUCTION n the last decade, the quality of university education has become a subject of major concern. Students, their families, companies, the graduates, university professors and staff, the government and politicians, al1 have interests and stakes here. Numerous programs have been started to improve quality, Total Quality Management (TQM) being an example. Governmental and professional institutions have introduced the accreditation of university programs, in order to provide the standardization at a national level. Now the questions arise 'What does quality in education mean?', 'How can universities assure the general public of the quality of educational services provided?', 'How can universities improve quality?' [1] A quality system is a set of interdependent processes that function amicably, using various resources to achieve objectives related to quality and create quality characteristics that will meet customer needs [2]. An established quality system requires certain resources, such as people, material and information, to achieve set goals and objectives. Organization, responsibility, authority and About- α Department Of Mechanical Engineering, Singhania University, Rajasthan, INDIA About € -Department Of Mechanical Engineering, N.I.T. Kurukshetra,, INDIA About Ω -Department Of Electronics & Communication Engineering, Singhania University, Rajasthan, About £ -Department Of Computer Science & Engineering, Singhania University, Rajasthan, interrelationship between people whose work affects quality of the product must be defined. Documented resources are also needed to describe and control processes within the quality system, and to provide evidence of an effective and efficient quality system to interested parties, such as customers, external organizations or management. The ISO 9001 quality system in a university department, through process control, statistical techniques and internal quality audits can achieve an objective of creating zero-defect students, which would at this point of time certainly surpass the expectations of its customers. II. QUALITY CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT Quality control of the common constituents of an Engineering course: lectures, tutorials and laboratories are addressed, followed by a description of the tools for quality improvement. Students are continuously tested through term tests, assignments, projects, quizzes and exams. Term-tests and exams resemble the 'go-no-go' gauges [3]. Rather than comparing a student's knowledge and competence with the performance of his/her class peers, it should be compared against an established standard. Quality knowledge and competence must be built into students, and not just inspected at the end of a course or program. If there is any inspection and testing to be done, it should be done continuously before and after every lecture, laboratory and tutorial, much like in the Toyota production system where a product is continuously inspected after each operation and before every consecutive operation. Techniques such as Statistical Process Control (SPC), Analysis of Process Capability, Acceptance Sampling, or the 'Seven Quality Control Tools', together with established classroom assessment techniques, can be used to build in quality on a continuous basis [4]. III. QUALITY CONTROL IN LECTURES Combining Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) [1] with control charts provides the possibility to control learning outcomes and the teaching process. In this a modified Background Knowledge Probe (BKP) is used to measure the learned material, together with plotting a control chart of results as a statistic. A BKP requires students to write short answers and/or circle the correct responses to multiple choice questions, and provides feedback on students' poor learning [5]. A modified BKP for a lecture would ask the students about their prior knowledge on the matter to be taught at the beginning of a lecture, but would also ask the same questions at the end of a lecture. I