These are some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) during the

previous Accreditation Day. Please read carefully and try to

understand. The answers given here (obtained from discussion in
a workshop) can be used as a guideline to all of you. Hopefully,
this will help you.

GENERAL
1. What is Outcome Based Education (OBE)?
OBE is an education system that focuses on the achievement of students
outcome. i.e based on the course outcome & program outcome set by the faculty
2. Who is responsible in implementing the OBE at FKA
All the academic and supporting staff of the faculty
3. Why need OBE and what will happen if we do not implement it?
It is a requirement to be accredited and recognised by signatory bodies and having
met the academic requirement for the entry of practicing engineering
4. TeII us about the strength of the programme, what are the good things that are
happening? Tell us also about the weakness of the programme ?
The strength includes;
i. established curriculum
ii. qualified academics staffs
iii. well trained supporting staffs
iv. high employability rate
The program has no significant weakness, but based on the industrys feedback
the program need to be improved in some program outcomes i.e. communication
skill, leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
PEO and PO
5. Please differentiate between Programme Educational Objective (PEOs),
Programme Outcomes (POs) and course outcomes (COs).
PEO isobjectives need to achieve after 5 years graduation. PO isobjective that
need to achieve upon graduation. CO is an objective for particular courses
6. Can you describe briefly your role in developing the Programme outcomes?
From giving feed back through CAR to faculty can help faculty to review the PO
7. How do you align the course outcomes, deliveries and assessment methods?
The course outcomes, deliveries and assessment method is design through the
development of designing course outline (Nota Tahap 1 )
8. What is your role in ensuring that all the POs are attained or achieved before the
students graduate?
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Monitoring thought the result of CET Course Exit Test

9. How do you inculcate ethics and professionalism in your teaching and learning.
How do you assess either formatively or summatively whether the students has
acquired the outcomes?
Inculcate ethics and professionalism- beside the PO 10, , we ensure no
plagiarism , attend lecture on time, submit report in time etc
10. How are the overall graduate outcomes targets set? What are their performance
indicators?
The overall graduate outcomes set via workshop, discussion and meetings. Their
performance indicator are through rubrics
11. Involvement of lecturers in PO formulation.
Through workshops
CURRICULUM
12. How are generic attributes manifested?
The generic attributes were manifested through many media such as course
outlines, mapping, handbook, guidelines, banner, website etc
13. How do you take part in the review process? Are there industry input and are their
feedbacks meaningful? How do you react towards the feedback?
When there is a need to review the curriculum, the matters were brought into
meetings such as Panel, JKKS, JKA, JKTS, students, alumni, and external
examiner. One of the input from industry comes from IAP and the feedbacks were
very helpful in revising our curriculum.
14. How is development of technical depth controlled and monitored?
The technical depth was controlled through EACs manual under complex
problems. It was monitored through CAR and CQI.
15. Quality of project-based learning? - complex, open ended problem solving? Broad
contextual framework - culture, social, environmental, legal, economics, business,
ethical factors?
Our project-based learning are IDP, PSM, and Open ended lab. The open ended
problems were embedded into IDP. All the attributes were addressed in the related
courses based on the mapping
16. Integration of business, entrepreneurial and management skills development?
The mentioned attributes (PO6 and PO9 ) were in addressed in Entrepreneurial
and Project Management Courses
17. SustainabiIity are issues considered to be animportant agenda in the future. How
do you incorporate these issues in your teaching?
We have idenfied few courses that addressed the SustainabiIity. These issues were
injected into some courses.
18. There are too many electives. No/less focus?
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Yes, we have many elective courses because the Civil Engineering has a wide
range of specialisation. However, we offer few electives only per semester
according to the demand. The students are required to take three electives only for
the entire program.
19. Can you describe the assessment moderation process? How are standards set and
maintained by the programme teaching team?
The assessment was carried out using Rubric. For instant, the standard for final
examination questions were controlled and monitored through moderation process
during special meeting. The Blooms Taxonomy is the criteria to be considered
and the objective quality was set in ISO documents.
20. How do you use electronic or other delivery technologies to enrich learning?
E-learning, E-portfolio, Powerpoint, etc
STUDENTS
21. How do you develop the students to be an open minded person?
Students should be aware the meaning of open mided receptive to others
ideas or suggestion.
Promote multi-disciplinary discussion from engineers point of views versus
architecs.
Students have been exposed to real-situational study, e.g., Harvard Case
Study, professional seminars, colloquiums, SEMKA, etc.
Students expand knowledge PAP which involves infrastructure elements
22. How do you get the students actively involved in the learning process?
Several courses have been identified/chosen as integrated design
projects/courses such as IDP or any case study given as assignments/projects
in respective courses as part of their coursework elements.
For example, assignment in Hydrology course, students are to apply MASMA
design concepts and guidelines in given assignment. They are to serach, read
and comprehend the requirements in MASMA themselves independently prior
applying them in assignments given
Several subjects use cooperative learning method
23. How do you develop the writing and oral communication skills of your students?
Students get involved in mini-projects and final year project which require
them to compile and summarize literatures, submitting proposal,analyzing and
reporting results.
Oral presentation as part of progress reporting or final presentation
Questions and answer session in class as part of checking on their
comprehension in subject matter.
Students practice taking dictation or taking notes during class lecture/teaching
Writing resume guidelines during HTGYE programme or students can get
information from UTMs Career & Counseling Unit.

24. Your industrial advisory panel emphasised on the need to enhance the students
leadership skills and of course without sacrificing the fundamentals and other
POs. How do you response to this?
Students leadership is enhanced via involvement as both a team member and
as an individual member in an organization with respective tasks to be
fulfilled or authority/responsibilities implemented. The tasks include scope of
works, decision making, monitoring progress of works, rectifying problems at
work.
Examples: Survey camp, PAP.
25. How to encourage first degree student (from UTM) to continue study, for the
postgraduate programme? For master by research ?
Provide awareness of the needs for furthering studies in postgraduate study or
research study durin gclass lectures or relevant programmes such as:
o SEMKA
o HTGYE (How To Get Yourself Employed)
o Career Talk/Expo

Provision of financial aids or research grants

Provision of research activities/elements in Pre-Project course and Final Year
Project
Transfer credits of several undergraduate electivtives to post-graduate
programmes.

26. What mechanism for staff-student consultation?

Academic Advisory
PEKA (Civil Engineering Students Society) FKA Staff Committee monthly
meetings/Dialogues
First-Year Experience Programme since two years ago
PPMH ( Program Mahasiswa Holistik) started in Semester 1 2013-2014
27. How are the big-picture graduate outcome targets set? What are their performance
indicators?
The outcomes are set based on vision, mission, policy, of UTM and MOE,
stakeholders, accredittaion body (EAC), professional bodies (BEM & IEM)
Performance Indicators, KPI of MOE and UTM, requirements and needs of
industry and employability of our graduates.
Provision of Professional Added values programmes (previously known as
Degree ++ Programme).
28. How do you rate on the working load of students ? On what basis ?
Satisfactory
The working load of students is estimated based on Student Learning Time
(SLT), i.e., about 40 hours for each credit hour of a course. For example
SKAA173 (Soil Mechanics of 3-credit hours needs student learning time of
about 120 hours for whole 1-semester.
29. How do you inculcate general knowledge on engineering profession and the
society in general in your teaching ?
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Awareness on current issues/tragedies such as floods, landslides, building

damages, subsidence, bridge collapse and etc.
Include also issues in economy, sustainability locally and globally.

30. Community engagement is still lacking in this university, in general. What do you
think of its consequence to the attainment of generic attributes of students? What
has you done?
Consequences:lack of responsibility with respect to community needs; lack of
compassionate and emphaty
What have we done: Volunteerism activities via Students Societies, Task
Forces for examples, PEKA, (undergraduate Soceity), Post-Graduate Soceity,.
Community services rendered to neighboring communities.
Gotong-Royong activities for cleanliness and /or feast preparation.

STAFF
31. How do you adapt to the working environment in FKA? Are you happy working
in FKA?
We are happy working in FKA. There are many ways that we could use to adapt
with the working environment FKA.
i) Communication skills
- Non-verbal communication
Using emails, sms, what-app, formal letter. Though this technology method of
communication, the information can be more easy and fast to distribute
between each other. We always can be updated in any task that we involved.
- Verbal communication
Two ways of communication between head of department, top management in
faculty, course coordination, etc. this type of communication is more effective
compare to the previous. In some circumstances, the information is easier to
deliver from face to face. In FKA, to meet the top management, especially the
head of department is not an issue. We can easily access them and discuss if
we have anything to share.
ii) Team working- task force, ect.
Working together with others staff especially with those who have experience
in many fields may help us in term of build confident level in teaching and
management skills. Working in a group could help in distribution working
load that we face in every semester. Therefore that is important for staff
particularly who just join the FKA to get involved with the experience staff.
So that their expertise could be continues distributed.
32. The management is seen to be serious in providing a condusive working
environment. Do you think it is effective? Please comment.
In our opinion, the working environment in FKA is good provided basic necessity.
However, there areimprovement are needed in some places, for instance as below;
i) Social room / pantry

This room can be a place for staff to meet others after being working hard
alone. Here, the staff may have a chance for discussion with others regarding
work, research or etc. in more relaxing and family environment.
The electricity usage might reduce because the kitchen appliances for
example, kettle, microwave, fridge, water filter and etc. are centralising in the
same room rather than place it individually.
ii) Examination room
Some of the examination room is still need to be improved, interm of the
furniture-tables, chairs and curtain. The examination room have to be in at
least in good condition so that the student in the room could have a pleasant
feel during the examination. The existing furniture is in the good conditions.
However if they could be change it might be better.
iii) Internet connection
Now a day, internet plays importance roles. Therefore, the need of best
internet connection in FKA compound is compulsory. It could be proposed to
increase the speed of the internet connection and wider the internet connection
area in FKA especially in the classroom. This is because some courses need
the online teaching. The internet connection could be limited to the FKA staff
only.
33. How does FKA assess the performance of academic staff?
FKA, UTM assess the performance of academic staff by using Performance
Appraisal System In Online Academic Staff (e-LPPT). The assessment is done by
the two superior or immediate supervisors who have a working relationship
directly to the evaluated staff. The staff grading of e-LPPT is based on the subject
teaching, student supervision, research grants, awards, product commercialization,
biometric, Professional services, attended training (courses or workshops),
publications and others.
Furthermore, students can also evaluate the teaching performance of a lecturer in a
classroom by using Performance Appraisal System In Online Teaching Evaluation
(e-PPP). The minimum and maximum grades are guided by FKA, UTM. The
system can assist the lecturer to improve the learning and teaching methods in
delivering lectures and tutorials to students in a classroom or laboratory. It can be
enhanced by evaluating all the feedbacks given by the students from previous
semesters.

34. Can you briefly describe the work that you do in a semester specificalIy in
teaching UG students.
The following tasks are successfully carried in teaching a subject for
undergraduate students in a semester:
Prepare course outline for the given scheduled teaching subject.
Prepare and distribute notes/materials of the subject to students.
Enhancing lecture by using several strategies:
o Measuring and Improving lecturer teaching and student learning in a
classroom
o Helping students who are experiencing difficulty
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o Ask for student feedback

o Form group assignment
o Enhance self-motivation that every student is able to get A+ for the subject
o Enhance student attendance for continuous learning in class
Prepare questions for assignment/quizzes/hands-on
exercises/projects/tests/finals and their marking schema, respectively. These
questions including critical thinking, team work, knowledge application,
ethical and other considerations.
Take student attendance attendance should be 80% in order to qualify for
final.
Prepare Course Assessment Report (CAR).

35. What is actualIy your need to get yourself motivated inteaching UG students?
In FKA we have opportunity to teach a subject that related to your research
interest. In some circumstances, we also have to teach other subject too. This not
demotivated us. Because now a day, academic staff have to be multi discipline.
Therefore, what we need to enhance our knowledge and get motivated in teaching
UG students by attending courses, seminar and workshop related to teaching and
learning. For example, courses on Assessment for Group Assignment and elearning.
36. It seems that only a few of you involved in professional practices? Do you so?
Please comment.
Not yet. In order to get involved in professional practices, we need to attend the
mandatory course organise by BEM and 1 year industrial training.
37. Adequacy of staff workload management - how does research and industry
interaction fit in with teaching?
Integrating research and industry into teaching has become an important area that
needs prompt attention with the growing emphasis on student learning activities.
The link between research/industry and teaching can be achieved by exposing
students with new knowledge created through research and enhancing student
experience to the various aspects of industry by providing some form of work
integrated learning (example: PAP).
38. What do you think of the level of staff engagement with industry - consulting,
collaborative research?
In my opinion, most academic staffs engage with industry to further their research
rather than to commercialize their knowledge. Even though only 30% of academic
staffs have PE, but the rest still actively engage with industry even though the
consultation & collaboration works that they had are less known by other
colleagues. Therefore, it is suggested to documented all consultations and
collaboration works that has been done in order to prove that we have a lot of
contribution and engagement with the industry.
39. Are you satisfied with the teaching / working load? Give the reason?
Satisfied. Each of the staff is given the fair working load based on their weightage
of research classification. The time provided is sufficient for our career
enhancement respectively.
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40. Since UTM now is a Research University(RU), does this effect your effort in
enhancing your teaching and learning activities?
With the RU status; allowed the university and faculty to get more funds for
various sector. It is therefore, we can allocate some money to establish and
improve the facilities for teaching and learning purpose effectively
41. What is your comment on the opportunity for advancement, professional training
& sabbatical and promotion?
In our opinion, UTM have applied the term of 'Collegiality'. Therefore, the
opportunities are widely open in the career development where solely depending
on the motivation and hardworking of the staff themselves. This has created an
environment where new ideas can be freely launched, resulting in an
exceptionally high innovation or research and benefits for all staff.
42. Management issues transparency etc. What is your opinion or comment?
In our opinion, the management issues in FKA it seem more transparency. It is
easy for staff to see what activities are performed. All documents and all final
decisions are remaining archived. For example, staff promotion, staff will evaluate
based on their performance referring evidence that provided in e-LPPT.

FACILITIES
43. Please comments on the facilities provided to you for example the lab facilities
and equipments, project work, IT access, information resources etc
The faculty has provided more than sufficient in term of teaching and learning
facilities. But improvement need to be done to suit the demand of current
technology such advanced equipment i.e. digital related equipment for lab, well
equipt IT facilities (hotspot with high speed internet coverage)
44. What are the biggest current needs? If appropriate funding was suddently made
available, how would you invest to maximise improvement to teaching and
learning?
With funding, we really need advanced and quality equipment, additional audio
visual, condusive leaning environment and self-study areas.
45. Quantum and structure of lab and practical learning?
The faculty has appropriate and well prepared in term of these issues i.e. the
implementation of open lab
46. Facilities - classrooms size, smart class, LCD, hotspot & IT issues
Well provided but yet to be improve to facilitate the intellectually, stimulating and
richly resource environment
CQI
47. Effectiveness of teaching team (head of dept and course cordinator) leadership?
How do the programme teaching teams engage in CQI?
The teaching team was managed by Head of Department. Few engineers from
outside were invited to participate in the presentation of PAP and SEMKA
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courses. The approah from the engineers in conducting the lecture is different
because they talk more on practical aspects. This will help us in improving our
program. The CQIs were clearly published in Course Assessment Report (CAR).
48. Academic staff input to the review process? Industry input?
All academic staff were engaged to contribute in reviewing the process
(curriculum and CQI). Representatives from industries were invited and special
discussion and meeting (IAP meeting) were conducted every year to review our
program.
49. How is input and feed back from students and externaI stake holders taken into
account in the CQI process?
Their opinions and comments were taken into consideration through
Student-staf meeting
Industry-staf meeting
Feedback from questionaires
50. How is the technical breadth and depth of a particular course, controlled and
monitored?
They were controlled and monitored through mapping of complex problems
(please refer to the mapping).
51. How do you ensure that the outcomes of your course aggregate to deliver the
overall programme outcomes?
Each course was mapped in a master mapping of PO
52. What do you do with the course assessment report? How do you close the loop?
CAR was used to measure the achievement of students in the class. The marks for
COs and POs were tabulated in a standard template and the data were analysed for
CAR. In the CAR, the process of CQI is mentioned clearly to ensure that the loop
is closed.
53. After handling a particular course, what do you usually do after the end of each
semester?
Prepare marks for CO and PO, then prepare the CAR, and finally the CQI
54. How do you ensure that the outcomes of all the individual academic units
aggregate to deliver the big picture? Closing the loop on unit learning outcome
and assessment measures?
Each course was mapped in a master mapping of PO. CAR was used to measure
the achievement of students in the class. The marks for COs and POs were
tabulated in a standard template and the data were analysed for CAR. In the CAR,
the process of CQI is mentioned clearly to ensure that the loop is closed.

MANAGEMENT
55. How do you assess the staff in FKA? Any grievances, any dissatisfaction?
E-lppt, staff survey
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56. No of research carried out? Research grant? Lecturers involved in research?

Please refer to Faculty management resources
57. How does FKA assess the performance of academic staff especially in terms of
research and publication?
E-lppt, Research Alliance (RA), Research group
58. Promotion, Succession plan
Promotion: Yes, but selective, based on qualification. Application via online
system. Succession: No, but can be improved
59. Research activity and how the management at FKA encourage research activity
Monitored by RMC, but faculty encourages by conducting workshop, seminar,
award, attending competition, high E-lppt mark
60. Track record in staff development? Both professional and teaching skills.
Professional qualification, not only Ir, but members of Board of Surveyors,
Management, etc.
Monitored by admin staff. At least 7 days of training a year. Staffs requireto fill in
the form, listing all of his/her activities/task at the end of the year. We have 8% Ir.
in our faculty.

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