Program Satisfaction Criterion (PSC)

 

ABET specifies a set of SOs (Student Outcomes) to describe what students are expected to know and be able to do by the time of graduation. These relate to the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that students acquire as they progress through the program. (Source)

An essential element of the SO assessment and evaluation process is the “Program Satisfaction Criterion” or PSC. It specifies the percentage of students that must attain a certain level of ability for the students learning to be called satisfactory. The abilities attained are represented by the students’  scores for each SO. This idea of PSC can may be applied also to the CLOs (Course Learning Outcomes). A PSC can be written as follows:

PSC: “70% students attain  75% marks”

The PSC must be specified by the department based on faculty opinion. If the satisfaction level for a CLO or SO in a course is lower than the specified PSC it will trigger the alarm for the instructor to write a “Course Continuous Improvement Plan” (CCIP). This CCIP must be implemented   by the instructor when the same course is taught next time. 

PSC is a target to be achieved.  The purpose of this “Target PSC” is to encourage the faculty to suggest a CCIP whenever the CLO or SO attainments fall below this Target PSC. Considering the fact that some faculty members are always too hard graders and some are too soft, the “Target PSC” provides a guideline to the instructors and the chairpersons to evaluate the level of learning of the students.