The Academic and Technical Staff Monthly Seminar Series of the School of Engineering FUT has kicked off with a one day training of staff on Teaching and Learning Using Outcome Based Education (OBE) and Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS). The Seminar presented by Prof. Nuraddeen Magaji of the Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Department, took place at the CIT, Temporary Campus, on Thursday 29th August, 2024.
The host, Engr Salisu Mohammed Lawan, Dean of the School of Engineering in his welcome remarks emphasised the importance of upgrading the skills of staff for best learning outcomes.
Prof. Nuraddeen Magaji, explained in his presentation, that OBE is “an educational approach where all aspects of education are organized around achieving specific, measurable outcomes (knowledge, skills, attitudes); has flexibility in teaching methods and lays emphasis on assessment based on outcomes.” According to him its importance is, “it is a Student-Centered Learning approach anchored on sound Quality Assurance with global relevance.”
“Having learners do important things with what they know is a major step beyond knowing itself”, according to him, in the same way as “empowering Learners to apply knowledge is a significant advancement beyond mere understanding”, to show the difference between the old approach and the OBE methodology.
With the OBE approach, he concluded, “tertiary education institutions could provide both professional knowledge/skills and all-round attributes to their graduates; and equip learners to transfer academic success to life in a complex, challenging and high-technology future”.
Turning to Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS), Prof. Magaji explained its elements as: Key Core Subjects, Learning Outcomes, Assessment Standards; and Flexibility and Adaptation.
He said when the NUC launched 17 CCMAS documents on the 5th December, 2022 the documents were incomplete because they were short of total credit units for graduation ( of 30%) that was expected to be filled by the Universities with locally relevant programmes or course units. He also explained the self-reinforcing and synergy between Outcome-Based Education (OBE) and Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS).