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2009 International Conference on Engineering Education (lCEED 2009), December 7-8, 2009, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

An Ontological Approach to Curriculum Development

Adelina Tang, Member, IEEE

School of Computer Technology Sunway University College

Malaysia [email protected]

Abstract-An ontology of electrical engineering curriculum is

proposed. Preliminary discussions commence with a study of the learning outcome domains requirement by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA). The proposed ontology presents a common vocabulary that facilitates electrical engineering curriculum development. This forms the first step in examining the potential of creating an online presence for the larger EE community that include educators, students and industry. The immediate benefit would be a current and relevant curriculum designed by and for the EE community.

Keywords-ontology; curriculum development; engineering education

I. INTRODUCTION

An ontology facilitates the sharing of knowledge. It is a specification of a representational vocabulary for a shared domain of discourse, as defmed by Gruber [1]. The shared domain of discourse would consist of classes, relations, functions, and similar objects of interest.

This paper proposes an ontology that is designed to facilitate the development of curricula in the field of engineering, with a focus on the discipline of electrical engineering. No discussion of curriculum development would be complete without studying the concept of learning outcomes, as they form the basis of modem education. In addition, sample electrical engineering content would be utilized as the basis of analyzing the proposed ontology design. Finally, the paper postulates the potential in facilitating semantic curriculum development.

II. OUTCOMES-BASED CURRICULA

A. Outcome-Based Education (OBE)

Outcome-Based Curricula is a result of OBE, which is a method of curriculum design and teaching that focuses on arming students with knowledge, skills and related professional capabilities after undergoing the particular course and/or program [2]. According to Spady [3], the desired outcome is selected first and the corresponding curriculum and other teaching and learning aids would then be created to support the

In general, the achievement of outcomes at the course level would contribute to the more general outcomes at the program level.

B. Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) Learning Outcome Domains

The MQA introduced the Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF) as a point of reference to explain and clarify qualifications and academic achievement in higher education and how these qualifications might be linked. It is intended to provide a detailed description of the Malaysian education system to an international audience [4].

This framework serves to shift the Teaching-Learning focus from the conventional Teacher-centered emphasis to the more progressive Student-centered emphasis, as illustrated in Fig. I [5]. Note that the focus is now on the role played by "Learning Outcomes" within Student-centered Teaching-Learning.

With learning outcomes as the learning target, the MQF also includes the eight Learning Outcome Domains (LODs) (see Fig. 2) [5]. This necessitates the curriculum to be designed through the mapping of the course and program outcomes onto the LODs.

How Does MQF Affect TeachingLearni

.. �� .. ��

required outcome. Figure 1. Shift of focus from Teacher-centered to Studet-centered learning.

978-1-4244-4844-9/09/$25.00 ©20091EEE 219

2009 International Conference on Engineering Education (ICEED 2009), December 7-8, 2009, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

It would not be realistic to expect that every outcome could be mapped onto every LOD. However, it is generally acceptable that LODs would be fulfilled completely at the program level, whereas this would be less so at the course level. Tables I - III illustrate these assumptions by mapping sample general engineering program, specific electrical engineering program and course learning outcomes onto the corresponding LODs.

8 MQF Learning Outcome Domains

�

�

Social skills ond r�spons,bihfies

Commvn1calton, leadenhlp and team skills

information management

di'MI Ale-long learning

skllts

Figure 2. Eight MQF Learning Outcome Domains (LODs).

Tables I and II show successful mappings of the general engineering program and the electrical engineering program learning outcomes onto all LODs. However, the mapping in Table III indicates that course learning outcomes tend to be focused on only a few LODs.

C. Outcomes defined by Professional Bodies

Table I lists the outcomes defmed by the Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC), Board of Engineers, Malaysia (BEM). These outcomes are generally adopted by the electrical engineering departments of individual universities (see sample in Table II) as they are accredited by the EAC BEM.

Similar expectations are articulated by the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) USA [9] and the Engineering Council (EC) UK [10].

TABLE I. MAPPING OF SAMPLE GENERAL ENGINEERING PROGRAM OUTCOMES [6] ONTO LODs

Program Learning Outcomes MQF Learnin2 Outcome Domains 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Ability to acquire and apply knowledge of science and engineering fundamentals

./ ./ ./

Acquired in-depth technical competence in ./ ./ ./ a specific engineering discipline Ability to undertake problem identification, ./ ./ ./ formulation and solution Ability to utilize systems approach to design and evaluate operational ./ ./ ./ performance Understanding of the principles of design ./ ./ ./ for sustainable development Understanding of professional and ethical responsibilities and commitment to them

./ ./

Ability to communicate effectively, not ouly with engineers but also with the

./

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community at large Ability to function effectively as an individual and in a group with the capacity ./ ./ to be a leader or manager Understanding of the social, cultural, global and environmental responsibilities of a ./ ./ professional engineer Recognizing the need to undertake life - long learning, and possessing / ./ ./

acquiring the capacity to do so

TABLE II. MAPPING OF SAMPLE ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING PROGRAM OUTCOMES [7] ONTO LODs

Program Learning Outcomes MQF Learnin2 Outcome Domains 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Ability to acquire and apply fundamental ./ ./ ./ principles of science and engineering Capability to communicate effectively ./

Acquisition of technical competence specialized areas of engineering discipline

in ./ ./ ./

Ability to identify, formulate and model problems and find engineering solutions ./ ./ ./ based on a system approach Ability to conduct research in chosen fields ./ ./ ./ of engineering Understanding of the importance of sustainability and cost-effectiveness in ./ ./ ./ design and development of engineering solutions Understanding and commitment to ./ ./ professional and ethical responsibilities Ability to work effectively as an individual, ./ ./ ./ and as a memberlleader in a team Ability to be a multi-skilled engineer with good technical knowledge, management, ./ ./ ./ ./ leadership and entrepreneurial skills Awareness of the social, cultural, global and environmental responsibilities as an ./ ./

engineer Capability and enthusiasm for self-improvement through continuous ./ ./ professional development and life-long learning

III. ONTOLOGY AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

8

./

In recent years, professional bodies and government agencies have moved away from course objectives to a specification of characteristics of graduates in the form of program learning outcomes [5 - 7, 9, 10].

TABLE III. MAPPING OF SAMPLE ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING COURSE OUTCOMES [8] ONTO LODs

Course Learning Outcomes MQFLearnin Outcome Domains (Course name: Communications I) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Apply the basic concepts in information ./ ./ ./ theory to communication systems Analyze signals using Fourier analysis and ./ ./ ./ Fourier transform Define the conditions signal transmission

for distortionless ./

Define different types of pulse modulation techniques implemented in communication ./ systems Design simple signal multiplexers ./ ./ ./

Differentiate the concepts of ASK, FSK, PSK, DPSK, M-ary modulation, Continuous phase FSK, and MSK ./ techniques implemented in digital data transmission Understand the performance limitations of ./


digital communication systems Understand the basic concepts related to ./ information theory Draw the transceiver structure for varions modulation schemes

./ ./ ./

Design matched filter receiver for different pulse s�s

./ ./ ./

Analyze the performance of digital ./ ./ ./ communication �tems Undertake, under supervision, laboratory experiments on channel effect and line ./ ./ ./ cod�

Earlier, it was shown in Table III that individual course learning outcomes would probably not be mapped onto all the MQF LODs. However, it is important to ensure that individual course learning outcomes be developed to contribute to overall program learning outcomes. Therefore, curricula development and maintenance of individual courses have to be precise and effective in order to maintain this focus. Over time, necessary updates to the curricula would require a standardized approach regardless of actual content. The application of an Electrical Engineering Ontology is a good way to facilitate curricula development without compromising requisite Outcomes.

A similar approach was suggested by Cassel et al. when they proposed their computing ontology project [11]. The authors compressed the five distinct fields, namely Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, and Software Engineering into one generic computing field. This was to facilitate the development of a single ontology.

In their project, the primary objective was to connect the comprehensive list of typical computing topics with curriculum development and course planning activities. Thereafter, a prototype system for matching course topics and outcomes would emerge. A further proposed web-based utility would enable a course developer to select or create outcomes as well as to select suitable topics that could achieve those very outcomes [12].

This paper proposes to develop an ontology that facilitates the curriculum development of electrical engineering courses by adopting a similar approach. Unlike the computing ontology project, no other engineering field would be absorbed to cr�ate this ontology as it would be created solely for the electrIcal engineering field.

A. Typical Electrical Engineering (EE) Topics

It is important to distill the breadth of the EE discipline into a more restricted set of top level concepts to facilitate the development of the ontology. This set is obtained from the EAC BEM [13] and has been reproduced in Table IV.

The corresponding courses that realize the top level concepts would then be identified and grouped accordingly. The EE program structures of the local major universities would be the best source of the most appropriate EE courses. Finally, the specific topics to be taught in each of these courses would then be detailed accordingly.

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TABLE IV. Top LEVEL ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING ONTOLOGY CONCEPTS [13]

Circuit and Signals Instrumentation and Control Communications System Computer Applications

Machines and Drives Mathematical Applications Power Electronics Digital and Analog Electronics

Electrical Energy Utilization Electromagnetic Fields and Waves Electronic Drives and Applications Engineering Applications

Power Station and High Voltage Engineering Power System Analysis Statistical and Numerical Techniques

B. The Ontology Tool

The EE ontology was developed with the Protege-OWL editor [14]. The justification for using the editor with the Web Ontology Language (OWL) extension is to adhere to the standard endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) so as to be compatible with the general architecture of the WWW. This adoption would facilitate future web-based sharing of knowledge through automated and online methods, a typical requirement in the creation of Semantic Webcompatible applications.

C. The EE Ontology

Fig. 3 shows the basic structure of the ontology that follows the description outlined earlier in Sub-section A. Note that all classes and their instances belong to the general class

"owl:Thing". OWL classes are interpreted as sets of objects, with the class "owl:Thing" representing the set of all objects. This ensures that all classes created thereafter would become subclasses of "owl:Thing". Therefore, in this context, the class "EECurriculum" is the subclass of"owl:Thing".

Subsequently, the class "EECurriculum", in tum, has three subclasses "Broad Areas", "Courses" and "Topics". Each of these sub�lasses would have instances which are objects belonging to that particular class. For example, the subclass

"Broad Areas" is an instance / object of the superclass "EECuiTiculum". In the same vein, "Broad_Areas" would have an instance / object "Communications_SystemArea", which is itself a subclass of "Broad_Areas".

1) Class "Broad_Areas" This class reflects the top level concepts listed in Table IV.

Its properties are listed in the "Properties and Restrictions" panel in Fig. 4. The property "hasCourse" shows that this class has multiple Courses in each of its subclasses, i.e.

II- .ha�course (multiple Courses) (someValuesFrom Courses) 1111 eCourses

The property "isAreaOf' shows that multiple instances of this class "Broad Areas", i.e. multiple top level concepts, constitute the super class "EECurriculum", i.e.

III -isAreaOf (mulbple EECurriculum) II III


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Figure 3. Class "EECurriculum" and its subclasses "Broad_Areas", "Courses" and "Topics".

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- • II 0 logic View • Properties View

Figure 4. Properties and Restrictions of "Broad_Areas".

An instance of class "Broad_Areas", "Communications _ SystemArea" has its properties detailed in the "Properties and Restrictions" panel in Fig. 5. The property "hasCourse" displays two important features of "Communications_SystemArea". One feature is inherited from its superclass "Broad_Areas" and the other feature states that "Communications _ SystemArea" has one course called "Communications _ SystemsCourse", i.e.

'-hasCourse (multiple Courses) (someValuesFrom Communica

CI Communications _ TheoryCourse

Courses [from Broad_Areas)

The property "isAreaOf' in Fig. 5 shows that this instance of superclass "Broad_Areas", "Communications _ SystemArea", is a specific top level concept of superclass "EECurriculum", i.e.

III' -isAreaOf (aliValuesFrom EECurriculum)

II EECurriculum

2) Class "Courses"

IIIII

This class consists of the corresponding courses that realize the top level concepts in "Broad_Areas". Note that the class instance "Communications _ TbeoryCourse" referred to earlier

222

(in Fig. 5) reveals its corresponding "Topics" within the "Properties and Restrictions" panel. In addition, this course has also inherited a property "hasTopic 3 Topics" from its superclass "Courses" (see Fig. 6).

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Figure 5. Properties and Restrictions owned by "Communications_SystemArea" and inherited from "Broad_Areas".

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o Frequency_SpecVlmToptC�· '--__ _

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Figure 6. Properties and Restrictions owned by "Communications_TheoryCourse" and inherited from "Courses".

3) Class "Topics" This lists the topics and subtopics pertaining to the courses

in the sibling class "Courses". The instances of this class show a specific relationship to the instances of "Courses". For example, the instance "Communications_FundamentalsTopic" is related through the property "isTopicOf' to the instance

"Communications_TheoryCourse" (see Fig. 7, "Property and Restrictions" panel).

D. Ontology for Outcomes-Based EE Curriculum Development

The ontology's properties, highlighted so far, present the potential of facilitating the study of correlated topics that might exist in various courses. Such correlation is quite common as certain courses are considered as foundational and must be considered pre-requisite to the majority of the curriculum.


One such course is Engineering Mathematics whose topic Fourier Series is a subtopic of the Spectral Analysis topic in the course Communications Theory (see Fig. 8).

• Metadafa(Ontology1246502411.1J'oNI) oOWL08sses -Properties .lnd'o'itiJaJs : Forms OWLVLz

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.OAM_snd]M_Radio_ReceiversTopic

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• Ionosphere _tropospheric J>8rameters

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° Confldence_lntervels_socLEstimationsToc:

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• Dlfferenbal EouationsTooIc

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Figure 7. Instances of class 'Topics" and its corresponding subclasses.

ODlfferentlal_EquatlonsTopic r# � � ... d . • PropM'es and R.�lnetlont . ODigital_CommunIcatlons_SystemsT .. -1.Toph:Ot' (alValuesFrom Englneenn!LMathematlcsCourse) • ODigitaLMO<kiationTopic .�neering_MathemallcsCOlXse

o Discrete_Chtribution,TopIc

o EmpiricaLDiltributionsTopic

o Fourier_SeriesTopic

• OFreouenc ... SoeetrwnTooie

OProbabil ityTopic - Properties and Restrictions

. O Pulse_Modulat ionTopic .. -isContentOf (someValuesFrom SpectraLAnalYSlsToplc, someV OSampling_Distribution_TheoryT . SpectraLAnalys isTopic o Sequence_and_SeriesTopic o Fourier_SeriesTopic

.. OSpectral_AnalysisTopic " .isTopicOf (allVa luesFrom Communicabons_TheoryCourse) • Correlation_and_convolution Communicatlons_ TheoryCourse [hom Spectra l_Ana IYSlsToplc)

-Fouriecseries

·OrthogonaUunctions

Figure 8. Correlated Fourier Series topic and subtopic.

Note, however, that "Fourier_Series" has the property of "isContentOf' relating it directly to its superclass "Spectral_ AnalysisTopic", as well as to another instance of class "Courses" called "Fourier_SeriesTopic". In fact, the properties of "is Area Of', "isCourseOf' and "isTopicOf' are all subproperties of "isContentOf' (see Fig. 9). Further, these are the inverse properties of "has Area", "hasCourse", "hasTopic", and "hasContent", respectively.

Fig. lO illustrates the correlation of "Fourier_Series" with a topic other than its own superclass. This shows that although content does not appear to belong to a particular topic, it is still possible to relate it to another topic through a combination of object properties, inverse properties and restrictions, without compromising its "ownership".

It is this flexibility of Ontologies that makes them so useful in defming relationships among instances within and without particular classes. The important issue is to defme the accompanying metadata appropriately so as to ensure accurate descriptions of relationships among relevant objects.

The relationships portrayed in Fig. 10 are not always obvious to the Engineering Mathematics lecturer or to the Communications Theory lecturer. The former would teach

223

Fourier Series from the mathematics perspective and provide suitable examples of engineering applications. The latter would expect that students would already be well-versed in this material and teach only its application in Spectral Analysis.

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Property rdfs:comment

Domain

owl Thing

Value

, .. Range l..o .. � ..

Annotations La ...

Functional

InverseFunctional

Symmetric

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Inverse � � ... - hasContent

Figure 9. Object properties of the "EECurriculum" ontology.

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Communicalions_ TheoryCours ngineerinlLMalhemalicsCourse

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".'

SpectraLAnalysis Topic

.... jl·c;;;;�� · ··· .,:,;; .. , __ --_-::: ... ·····�c·�ntcn\

-Oi

Superclass of Fourier_Series

Figure 10. Graphical representation of correlation among disparate courses.

A display of the correlation of content in disparate topics very often serves as a reminder and a learning tool for faculty in ensuring completeness of coverage of the said content [12]. Perhaps with some fme-tuning, the Engineering Mathematics lecturer would be encouraged to re-organize content to better suit the requirements of students when they are later taught the application of Fourier Series in Communications Theory.

Completeness and appropriateness of content coverage naturally leads to the fulfillment of Course Outcomes especially with regard to correlated materials that see foundational content lead to more complex concepts in more advanced courses. Therefore, foundational Course Outcomes are strengthened in senior year Course Outcomes although the actual mapping onto the LODS appears similar or even identical in certain technical areas.

In a similar vein, the Course Outcomes of the seemingly disparate courses could also be seen as complementary. This

2009 International Conference on Engineering Education (lCEED 2009), December 7-8, 2009, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

could be made possible by viewing the Engineering Mathematics course and some other EE core course as a single entity. This would facilitate a more inclusive curriculum in which the mathematics components are viewed as the introductory or foundational section of a larger two- or threesemester course.

IV. SEMANTIC POTENTIAL OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

Although it is extremely useful for this Ontology to be utilized in curriculum development activities to help academics decide what content to include, exclude or de-emphasize, there is a bigger picture to curriculum development and Course Outcomes. The potential lies in the creation of a Semantic-Web compatible application. The basis of future work will now be discussed.

A. Online Curriculum Repository

The authors of [12] had suggested a Wikipedia-like environment to facilitate the curriculum development personnel to contribute, monitor and fine-tune recommendations as necessary. Similarly in this context, it is proposed that the larger EE community include the BEM, EE faculty and students, as well as industry participants be part of a curriculum that is made relevant through the participation of all stakeholders.

The EE ontology would serve as the terms of reference that gives structure to what could become a self-improving standard for EE curricula. Participants would be empowered to post critique and comments regarding the existing recommendations as well as suggestions for improvement where appropriate. The online nature of the repository would also facilitate a quicker response to required curriculum changes by interested members of the EE community. With its online presence, there is also a potential to interest the global EE community as well. This naturally fulfils the objective of the Semantic Web in utilizing an ontological approach to facilitate knowledgesharing.

B. Extensions to other Engineering disiplines

Although the domain of discourse is the Electrical Engineering curriculum, the proposed approach may be extended to the other Engineering disciplines as well. Each discipline would then be represented by an ontology that facilitates similar knowledge-sharing capabilities among the respective Engineering communities.

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V. CONCLUSION

This paper proposed an ontological approach to developing and maintaining the curriculum of the Electrical Engineering discipline. This approach is the first step in creating an online presence for the EE community that also fulfils the greater objective of any potential Semantic Web application, i.e. the facilitation of knowledge-sharing without boundaries.

REFERENCES

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[3] W. Spady, Outcome-based Education. Belconnen, ACT: Australian Curriculum Studies Association, 1993.

[4] Malaysian Qualifications Agency, Malaysia Qualifications Framework. Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, 200S.

[5] Malaysian Qualifications Agency, "MQF in Programmes," Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, 200S.

[6] Engineering Accreditation Council, Engineering Programme Accreditation Manual. Board of Engineers Malaysia, p. 3,2007.

[7] B. Eng. in Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, Malaysia. Available: http://foe.mmu.edu.rnvlv2/main/undergradlbeng elecal.html (Accessed 12th June 2009).

[S] Communications I, B. Eng. in Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, Malaysia Available: http://foe.mmu.edu.mvlv2/main/undergradlsubject/etm3046.html (Accessed 12tfi June 2009).

[9] Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC), Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs. USA, p. 2, 200S. Available: http://www.abet.org/Linked Documents-UPDATE/Criteria and PPIEOOI 09-10 EAC Criteria 12-0 I-OS.Pdf (Accessed 12th June 2009).

[10] Engineering Council (EC), "The Accreditation of Higher Education Programmes," UK, pp. 11-14, 200S. Available: www.engc.org.ukldocumentslECOO05 AHEPBrochure MR.pdf (Accessed 12th June 2009).

[11] L. N. Cassel, R. H. Sloan, G. Davies, H. Topi, and A. McGettrick, "The computing ontology project: The computing education application," Proceedings of the 3Sth SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. Covington, Kentucky, USA: ACM, pp. 519-520, 2007.

[12] L. N. Cassel, G. Davies, R. leBlanc, L. Snyder, and H. Topi, "Using a computing ontology as a foundation for curriculum development," Proceedings of the Sixth International Workshop on Ontologies & Semantic Web for E-Learning, Montreal Canada, pp. 21-29, 200S.

[13] Engineering Accreditation Council, Engineering Programme Accreditation Manual. Board of Engineers Malaysia, Appendix B, 2007.

[14] Protege-OWL Editor, Version 3.4 (Build 533), Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research, 2009. Available: bttp:llprotege.stanford.eduioverview/protege-owl.html (Accessed 25th May 2009).