Quality Function Deployment for Designing a Course By S. O. Duffuaa, U. Al-Turki and M. Hawsawi

Presentation Plan  Introduction  Literature review  Paper objectives  Problem statement  Quality function deployment  Application of QFD for designing statistics course  Conclusion and further research

Introduction  Academic programs are one of the main ingredient in quality of graduates  Programs are drastically affected by courses design  Courses design is essential element for building quality academic programs

Introduction  Course design is usually made by intuition and experience  Courses delivery is based on experience and ad hoc consultation  Industry/employers are usually consulted in programs design, but rarely in course design  Students input is rarely thought in the process of course delivery  A need exist to systematize the process of course design and delivery

Literature  Literature will be confined to the design and delivery of basic statistics courses  Molinero advocates teaching philosophical and conceptual aspects of statistics to OR and MS students  Hogg, Khamis provide suggestions on how to teach a basic statistics course  Macnaughton outlines goals for an introductory course

Literature  QFD has been used in designing ME programs

Problem Statement  Experience has shown in our department that our students are having problems in understanding and retaining the basic probability and statistics concepts  The concepts in basic statistics are necessary for them to succeed in advance level courses  These concept are essential for their success as industrial engineers

Objectives  To enhance the design and delivery of a basic statistics course with the following aims:  To meet industrial needs for basic statistics  To improve students learning and aid them in retaining the probability and statistics concepts

Approach  Use the methodology of quality function deployment (QFD) to design and deliver this basic course  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

External and Internal Customers w Employers/Organization are used as external customers to specify their needs w Students are used as external customers to determine delivery requirements w Faculty are used as designers for the course technical requirements

Customer requirements  The employers/organizations have identified the following topics are the most important to them:  Summarization of data  Estimation of parameters  Test of hypothesis  Distribution identification  Knowledge of statistics software

Students Technical Requirements 1. Knowledgeable and experienced faculty members. 2. Communicate well and write excellent notes. 3. Faculty members who solve homework problems and examples. 4. Small class size. 5. Textbook with simple language, clearly organized, and contains many examples. 6. Statistical package use.

Technical Requirements The following requirements are identified to be of most importance by the faculty: Syllabus Student preparation Faculty Teaching methods Class size

Table 1 levels of the syllabus Sub-requirementLevel 1Level 2Level 3Level 4Level 5 1. Descriptive StatisticsAvailable 2. Basics of probabilityAvailable 3. Random VariablesAvailable 4. Sampling DistributionAvailable Not AvailableAvailable 5. EstimationAvailable Not AvailableAvailable 6. Test of HypothesisAvailable Not Available 7. Statistical Package UseAvailableNot AvailableAvailable

Table 2 Levels of prerequisites Sub-requirement Level 1 Level 2Level 3 1. CalculusAvailable Not Available 2.College Algebra AvailableNot Available

Table 3 levels of grade in prerequisites Sub-requirementLevel 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Average grade in Perquisites (G ) G>BG=CG < C B  G and G >C

LevelsEducationYears of Experience Communication Skills Level 1Ph.D  10 E Level 2Ph.D  10 VG Level 3Ph.D  10 G Level 4Ph.D  5 and < 10 E Level 5Ph.D  5 and < 10 VG Level 6Ph.D  5 and < 10 G Level 7Ph.D< 5E Level 8Ph.D< 5VG Level 9Ph.D  10 G Level 10MS.  10 E Level 11MS.  10 VG Level 12MS.  10 G Level 13MS.  5 and < 10 E Level 14MS.  5 and < 10 VG Level 15MS.  5 and < 10 G Level 16MS.< 5E Level 17MS.< 5VG Level 18MS.< 5G Level 19MS.< 5E Level 20MS.< 5VG Table 4 Faculty levels

Table 5 Levels of teaching methods Sub-requirementLevel 1Level 2Level 3Level 4Level 5 1. Clear PresentationAvailable 2. Excellent NotesAvailable 3. Using of educational notes Available Not Available Available 4. Relating Topics to Real Life Available Not Available Available 5. Solving ExamplesAvailable Not Available 6.Assigning Homework and Quizzes Available Not Available Available 7. Reporting Progress to Students AvailableNot Available Available

Table 6 Level of class size Sub-requirementLevel 1Level 2Level 3Level 4 1. Class Size (CS)CS ≤ 2020 <CS ≤ 3030< CS ≤ 40CS > 40

Design Concepts w A design concept is a selection of a level from the technical requirements to come up with a design that best satisfies companies and student’s requirements. As an example, a design concept can have a first level syllabus, second level student preparation, third level of pre-requisite, sixth level of faculty, first level of teaching method and a second level of class size.

Requirements Design concepts * Syllabus level Student preparation level Prerequisite level Faculty level Teaching methods level Class size level Table 8 Course design concepts

Table 9 Design concepts evaluation

Conclusion and Further Research w QFD is an effective tool for designing and delivering courses. w It matches customer requirements with technical requirements. w The use of QFD provides a better understanding of the course design process. w The new course design is a balanced one.

w More work could be done to identify more design concepts for evaluation. w AHP or a more sophisticated evaluation process can be used to evaluate resulting design concepts. w 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?