OBE3 Team: Promoting Effective OBE in the Classroom

 

 "Outcomes-Based Education for Engineering Educators" or OBE3 started in April 2012 when the Dr. Pag-asa Gaspillo, President then of the Philippine Association for Technological Education (PATE) invited us to design a seminar-workshop to promote OBE to PATE faculty members. The team, composed of  Dr. Manuel Belino, Engr. Efren Dela Cruz and I, designed the course entitled "Effective OBE in the Classroom." The seminar-workshop primarily targets the teachers who are the ones delivering the courses of the engineering curriculum. The course is principally concerned with improving the quality of  the teaching and learning process in the classroom. Accreditation is secondary, because if the teachers can effectively practice OBE in the classroom, then the present requirements on accreditation which based on OBE can be easily achieved.

The seminar workshop on "Effective OBE in the Classroom" consists of the following lectures:

• Understanding OBE. Why OBE? Global Trends. Designing your PEOs. - Dr. Manny Belino
• What are Student Outcomes? - Dr. Manny Belino
• Writing Course Learning Outcomes and Course Design - Dr. Andy Oreta
• Using Various Assessment Tasks - Dr. Andy Oreta
• Introducing a Variety of Teaching and Learning Activities - Engr. Efren Dela Cruz
• Designing an OBE Syllabus - Engr. Efren Dela Cruz

The workshops consists of the ff:

• Writing the Program Educational Objectives (PEO) for a specific Program
• Curriculum Mapping
• Writing Course Learning Outcomes for a Course You Teach
• Converting your syllabus to OBE format

The seminar-workshop usually takes one and a half days. One day for the lectures and at least half day for the workshop. The expected outputs of the seminar-workshop are draft PEOs of a program, Sample curriculum mapping and syllabi in OBE format. Accomplishing these main outputs involves the application of all the topics discussed in the lectures. Hence, the seminar-workshop is really outcomes-based where the participants are expected to apply the OBE principles in the design of the syllabus of the a course they teach.

After the 2012 PATE seminar-workshop, the OBE3 team was invited to conduct similar lectures and workshops in various schools like Colegio de San Juan De Letran, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Capiz State University and Northwestern Samar University. At the start of the seminar-workshop, there was resistance from the participants. For them adjusting to OBE is an additional burden. However, after Dr. Belino's inspiring lecture on Why OBE?, the participants realize the need to go to OBE, otherwise the engineering graduates will not be globally competitive. After the activity, the team hopes that the participants can effectively apply the OBE principles in the classroom. The saying, "It is only by doing that we learn" should always be in the minds of the teachers for them to understand and appreciate OBE.

Capiz State University (2013)

Collegio de San Juan De Letran (2014)

Northwestern Samar State University (2015)

"Effective OBE in the Classroom" is only the 1st Moduleof the OBE3 Seminar-Workshops. The 2nd module is "Outcomes-Based Assessment of an Engineering Program" which involves the continuous improvement of a program by assessing the student outcomes.

For more information about OBE3, email: 
O-Dr. Andy Oreta - andyroreta@yahoo.com

B-Dr. Manny Belino - mcbelino@mapua.edu.ph
E-Engr. Efren Dela Cruz -  efren.delacruz@dlsu.edu.ph