Dhanushka @ FOT Workshop 2017

https://docs.google.com/a/sjp.ac.lk/document/d/1WkIRQF1tQcVLoIV6LlcmcN_d2rY4Lp2rDBT8j0fxJ8M/edit?usp=sharing

CTHE 2017

Outcome Based Education

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Dhanuhska Udayanga

Educational methods and theories have evolved over time in order to achieve the goals and requirements of the society. Outcome Based Education (OBE) is an educational theory of which the curriculum, teaching and learning systems are organized around specific goals. OBE is a learner centered system of education. The OBE system should make an individual with set of particular skills, therefore the vision and mission of such an education system is should be measureable, attainable.

OBE is adopted in educational systems in various levels including high school education , undergraduate and postgraduate education. The international accreditation agreements like Washington accord or various professional bodies for particular profession are involved in the educational standards provide the implementation of OBE systems. For instance, the Engineering Degree programme in Sri Lanka  is covered under Washington accord, where the Engineering Technology Degree programme offered by the Technology Faculties willing to achieve the standards of Sydney Accord.

There are both advantages and disadvantages of OBE systems. The prime advantage of the OBE system of undergraduate degree is the clarity. The student know the profession they are going to be and the set of skills and standards are well defined. Therefore regardless of the the primary and secondary educational standards, the students should acove the person they ought to be and finally direct to the targeted working environment or industry. Also the teacher know the specific limits and sets of skills they should cover up under the OBE curriculum, therefore they can be much dedicated to give the product that the according to social and industrial needs.

The OBE systems also allowed the comparison between degree programmes as well as their final outputs. When a similar degree offered from different institutions based on same or different defined outcome, the the product or the students would be easily comparable for a third part and also it is beneficial for institutions for their self reviews and setting up higher standards.

Since the OBE is a learner centred system of educations, the students are the first or the prime party and driving force. Their involvement should be much higher in order to achieve the given out come at the end of a degree programme.It is essentially beneficial for them to build up the self confidence about their future professional and easily move around the world in similar professional bodies or industries. However , the OBE needs the resource or the primary input of students in certain standards in order to result a desired product. Therefore, when there is a gap between qualifying levels for degrees and the OBE based degree programme , bridging programmes, foundations are essential in order to build up a successful input to the system.

Nevertheless, there are several known disadvantages of the system recognised, because the system could be defined differently based on the situation. The problems of assessment, generality and involvement of students in the learning process also known issues of the system. IT is reasonable, that one could argue about the given outcomes and their levels of achievements. Because the whole educational system is human driven process and the input, process and output could not be somehow applied to educational programmes and even the goals couldn't be acived at the end of given time period. Therefore the continuous monitoring, updates of standards ,comparison and trial and error experiments of the process is important.

Sri Lankan undergraduate education is now follow the theory of OBE, in various levels. Since it is free education system and government has a huge burden on higher educational expenses OBE is an alternative of monitoring the real outcomes and achieve the desired product for the country. For instance the professional programmes like engineering, medical or school teaching/ educational bachelor degrees  could target a specific outcome. The outcome definitions may vary according to the country’s needs as well as international standards. Since Sri Lankan early higher educational system is largely teacher centred, the process of student centred learning should be much implemented. So far the professional graduates of Sri Lanka could somehow achieve their job targets based on the training they gain in university. However, when it comes to non -specific degree programmes which does not result a defined profession they always face problems of their skills in the industry. This is the case of arts and humanities degrees, which are not targeted a s[ecific profession. However, as a going through much issues of higher education, economy, social equality, we must think the crowd outside the defined professions also try to make them to essential for the country's process of development.

The initiation of new Technology programme to Sri Lankan undergraduate educations is the most recent approach of resolving the problem of resulting  less skilled groups of undergraduates. In order to make the students more skilled in different professions Technology Faculties offer various courses under the themes of Engineering Technology and Biosystems Technology. The students who entered to Technology faculties have faced their qualifying exam or advanced level exam under the specific curriculum targeted engineering biosystem technologies.This new undergraduate programmes would be highly innovative experimental situation for OBE , and the we willing to see the product of this system in coming four years. The degree programme would result a “Technologists” who is trained with some specific skills according to industry needs. The continuous review of the programmes with industry experts and academics as well as government is essential to make so called new professions to the country. However, I personally believe the new professions created should accommodate not only industrial needs as well as motivate to make self entrepreneurs as well.