Quality Function Deployment for Curriculum Design: A Framework

S. O. Duffuaa, U. Al-Turki

Department of Systems Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals,

Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Presentation Plan

Introduction Literature review Paper objectives Problem statement Quality function deployment Application of QFD to curriculum design Conclusion and further research

Introduction

Academic programs are one of the main ingredient in quality of graduates

Programs are drastically affected by curriculum design.

Curriculum design is essential element for building quality academic programs.

Curriculum design must put into considerations program main stakeholders.

Introduction

In the past curriculum design is based on benchmarking and faculty experience

Industry/employers are usually consulted in programs design, but not from the initial design stages and not even consulted in curriculum delivery process.

A need exist to systematize the process of curriculum design and delivery

Problem Statement

Curriculum design is a challenge. It requires the wants and needs of employers.

Information from employers are hard to get. Design of questionnaire to solicit right

information is not straight forward. Formalizing employers input into program

measurable objectives and outcomes is hard to crystallize.

A Need for a systematic approach is obvious.

Objectives

To enhance the design and delivery of a curriculum with the following aims: To meet employers needs and

requirements. Incorporate alumni observations. Incorporate faculty requirements To meet accrediting bodies criteria such

as ABET.

Literature

Literature will be confined to the use of QFD in Education.

Pomona Employed QFD to meet ABET 2000 requirements.

Duffuaa and Al-turki employed QFD for designing a basic statistics course.

QFD has been used in designing ME programs

Approach

Use the methodology of quality function deployment (QFD) to design the curriculum.

QFD is a planning technique that is born in Japan as a strategy for assuring that quality is built into new processes. It helps organization to take the voice of the customer and factor their wants and needs into organization product and process planning

Quality Function Deployment

QFD uses matrices to help organization satisfy customer requirements

The Most important matrix is the house of quality (HOQ) that consists of several sub-matrices

Other matrices are the process planning matrix and the design concept evaluation

The steps for Applying QFD approach in curriculum design

Identify external and internal customers. Survey external customers ( employers and

alumni) to obtain their requirements in the curriculum design. The requirements are obtained in terms of program objectives and outcomes.

Use faculty members as internal customers to define technical requirements that are expected to meet customer requirements.

Use QFD planning matrices to relate technical requirements to technical requirements.

The steps for Applying QFD approach in curriculum design (Cont.)

Develop several curriculum design concepts. Evaluate design concepts to find the one that best

meets customer requirements. The best way to evaluate design concepts is through the Analytic Hierarchy Process.

Benchmark the selected design concepts to other similar existing programs.

Make selection of the final curriculum design.

External and Internal Customers

Prospective Employers organizations /industry) (External Customers)

Alumni (External Customers) Faculty members (Internal customers) Students ( Internal customers)

Customer requirements The employers/organizations and alumni

must provide their in a structured way through a questionnaire that focuses on Program objectives Program outcomes

Knowledge/Technical outcomes Personal skills outcomes

Curriculum Technical Requirements

  The technical requirements are obtained from

faculty members and experts in the field. These include:

Mathematics courses Basic sciences courses Information technology and computers Communication courses

Technical Requirements (cont.)

Management and team working courses

Ethics and life long learning courses Major courses required and electives.

Levels of Technical Requirements

Each technical requirement has several levels. A level consists of a combination of courses in the subfield.

Next we present levels of two technical requirements ( mathematics and major) as examples. 

Level of each Technical Requirements Each technical requirement has several levels. We

first present the mathematics technical requirements levels

Table 1. Levels of mathematics courses.

Sub-requirement Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Level 4

1. College algebra (6 credit hour) A A A A 2. Calculus series of courses (9 credit hours)

A A A A

3. Differential equations ( 3 credit hours)

A A NA NA

4. Numerical analysis ( 3credit hours) A NA A NA A: Available, NA : not available.

Major Technical Requirements

Table 3. Levels of major courses. Sub-requirement Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 1. Statistics (6 credit hours) A A A A NA 2. Operations Research (9 credit hours)

A A A A A

3. Quality control (3 credit hours) A A A A A 4. Simulation (3 credit hours) A A NA AN AN 5. Human factor (3 credit hours) A NA A AN AN 6. Electives (9 credit hours) A A A A A

Customer Requiremnts

Ratin

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Tech. R

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Tech. R

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Good

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1. Requirement 1 8 1 Å O D O O Å2. Requirement 2 9 2 D Å Å O D D3. Requirement 3 9 3 D Å Å O D D4. Requirement 4 8 4 O O D D Å Å5. Requirement 5 9 5 D Å Å O D D6. Requirement 6 8 6 Å O D D O Å7. Requirement 7 7 7 D D Å O D D

1. Requirement 1 9 8 D D Å D D Å2. Requirement 2 7 9 D D D D Å D3. Requiremnt 3 8 10 D Å D D D D

9 9 8 7 7 8

Technical requirementsCurrent practice

Exte

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requirem

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Å Strong, O Moderate and D Weak

* ICR stands for internal customer requirements

Targets

* IC

R

QFD Planning Matrix

Design Concepts

A design concept is a selection of a level from the technical requirements to come up with a design that best satisfies stakeholders. As an example, a design concept can have a first level mathematics requirement, second basic science , third level of information technology and computers, second level of communication, first level of management and team working, second level of ethics and first level of major courses.

Table 8 Course design concepts

Table 5. levels of each technical requirement for the eleven design concepts.

Design concepts Technical Requirements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

* Mathematics courses 1 2 3 4 3 1 2 3 4 4 2 Basic sciences courses 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 2 Information technology and computers 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 Communication courses 1 2 3 4 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 Management and team working courses 1 2 3 3 2 1 2 3 2 1 3 Ethics and life long learning courses 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 1 3 2 3 Major courses required and electives 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 2

Numbers in first row are the design concept number. * Concept 11 represents the current practice.

Source of Requirements

Concept Requirements

Con

cept

11

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once

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Con

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2

Con

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3

Con

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4

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5

Con

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6

Con

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7

Con

cept

8

Con

cept

9

Con

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10

Faculty

Mathematics courses + S - - - + S - - -

Faculty Basic Science + S - - + S - - + S

Employers and alumni Information technology & computers

+ S - + S - + S - +

Employer and Alumni Communication + S - - S - + S - + Employers and Alumni Management and team

working + + S S S + S - S +

Employers and Alumni Ethics and life long learning

+ + S - - + + + S +

Faculty Major courses S S - - + S - - + S

+ 6 2 0 1 2 3 3 1 2 4 Totals S 1 5 2 1 3 2 2 2 2 2 - 0 0 5 5 2 2 2 4 3 1

Design Concepts Evaluation

Conclusion and Further Research

QFD is an effective tool for curriculum design. It matches customer requirements with technical

requirements. The use of QFD provides a better understanding

of the curriculum design process. The new curriculum design is expected to meet

stakeholders requirements. .

More work could be done to identify more design concepts for evaluation.

AHP or a more sophisticated evaluation process can be used to evaluate resulting design concepts.

An awareness program must be launched before applying QFD in process, product or service design.

Conclusion and Further Research

Thank you.

Any Questions or Comments?