IPS’ Technology and Industrial Management graduate course: an improvement process

The key activities to achieve quality (satisfaction of needs and expectations of customers) move increasingly to the previous phases to service delivery and particularly to the organization’s interface with the market, where the most appropriate techniques and methodologies will have to identify what customers want, and perceive the quality and what features the services must have, as well as the price they are willing to pay. The Technology and Industrial Management (TIG) course of Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, Portugal (IPS), is a four year graduate course organized by quarters with three courses per quarter. In the last two quarters internships or real context projects prepare students for a smoother integration in the professional activity. From its beginning, in 2007, TIG was designed for active adults who develop their professional activity in industrial entities, and need to supplement their skills with those of managers and engineers. The B-learning methodology was adopted since it enabled the targeted students to better reconcile their academic,
professional and family responsibilities.
In 2010-2011 the first TIG students concluded their graduate studies and, within IPS’ Integrated Management System, it was decided to monitor the suitability of the TIG course curriculum. There is, then, the question ofwhat is and what is intended for an technology course, to an active adults in a region like Setúbal and in a polytechnic . This question corresponds to the first phase of QFD, where is therefore necessary to define the characteristic parameters of each profile that meet the expectations and needs of students and other stakeholders. If the question of the requirements of the course interacts with the objectives of the students, those requirements interact with the curricular content of their curricula. We are, therefore, in the second phase of QFD. The way the course is implemented will influence the means to administer the various components of the curricula, also determining the significant upfront investments in infrastructure and equipment facilities (laboratories, workshops, equipment, consumables), and will also influence the teaching-learning methods. The measurement conditions for the provision of the service, including monitoring of students, the way it measures the satisfaction of stakeholders and the availability of the facilities already include the third and fourth phases of QFD.
With this methodology we expect to have the guidelines to improve the curriculum, teaching-learning methods and operating conditions of TIGcourse towards meeting the needs of stakeholders.

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adult learners; stakeholders satisfaction; b-learning, improvement