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Top1. Introduction
Accreditation is a process that helps an educational program to meet internationally recognized educational standards. It is considered as a quality assurance mechanism that leads an educational program to have acceptable standards which are judged by an accrediting agency (Issa-Salwe, 2016). Wergin (2005) argued that the recent interest in academic accreditation is mainly because it is the only organized way by which an institution can convey quality assurance to the public
ABET, previously known as Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, is non-governmental organization with ISO 9001:2015 certification, aims at assuring confidence in university programs in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines (ABET, 2019). ABET accreditation does not apply to degrees, departments, colleges, institutions, or individuals but merely academic programs. A program achieves ABET accreditation when it complies with the criteria, policy, and procedures upon which an ABET review is based (Al Mourad, 2014). ABET states that “With ABET accreditation, students, employers and the society we serve can be confident that a program meets the quality standards that produce graduates prepared to enter a global workforce” (ABET, 2019). With more than 2,200 volunteer experts come from industry, academia and government, ABET accredits college and university programs in the disciplines of applied and natural science, computing, engineering and engineering technology at the associate, bachelor’s and master’s degree levels (ABET, 2019). ABET organizes itself into four commissions; Applied and Natural Science Accreditation Commission (ANSAC); Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC); Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC); and, Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission (ETAC).
In 2000, ABET adopted an outcomes-based assessment approach and moved away from the traditional curriculum-based assessment models (Gardiner, 2002; Yaverbaum et al., 2007; Somervell, 2015). As stated by ABET, the purpose of this change was to focus on what students were learning as opposed to what students were being taught. A number of factors have contributed to this shift as students who enrolled in respected academic institutions often fail to exhibit fundamental understanding of basic concepts and fairly easy physical systems (Harden, 2007). This is mainly because curriculum-based models do not usually make clear statements as to what students are expected to achieve upon completing a program of study (Ibrahim et al., 2015). While the ABET criteria has been modified since that time, the concept of outcome-based assessment has remained the same (Dettman, 2013).
With over 60 universities worldwide currently hold ABET IS Program accreditation, ABET started accrediting IS Programs in 2002. ABET accreditation requirements are appropriate for any well-run IS program wishing to deliver a quality curriculum to IS students (Challa, et al 2005). As one of cooperating member societies, Computer Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB) plays a critical role in ABET accreditation since the formation of a new ABET commission to focus on computing accreditation, the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) in 2001(Oudshoorn et al., 2018). ABET-CAC accredits, computer science, information systems, information technology and cybersecurity programs (ABET, 2018a). Just recently, ABET-CAC approved revisions to computing programs seeking accreditation starting from academic year 2019-2020. ABET-CAC requires educational programs seeking accreditation to focus on the criteria concerning students, program educational objectives, student outcomes (SOs), continuous improvement, curriculum, faculty, facilities, institutional support, and program criteria. That is, when a computing program meets the required criteria by ABET-CAC, the program is considered accredited.