University Pontificia Bolivariana implemented an institutional learning outcomes assessment system to guarantee academic quality and curricular management

Pontificia Bolivariana University (UPB)
Medellín, Colombia

Higher education institucions must ensure the academic quality of their programs.
UPB prioritizes research and innovation in the formation process of its graduates. Thus, curriculum management is of vital importance for the development of competent professionals, and for this reason UPB seeks to systematically optimize the processes that drive the management, organization, and implementation of the curriculum.

Improvememnts in curriculum design have historically been evaluated to benefit professors and students, who constitute the final evidence of efficient academic management.

In the case of UPB, improvements in curriculum design have historically been evaluated to benefit professors and students, who constitute the final evidence of efficient academic management. For the University, this is a three-pronged path that, until now, had not been taken into account from an administrative perspective.
The internal quest to build a triad that trains capable professionals fit for the challenges of today's labor market resulted in a series of needs that had not been visible until then. The first one was the systematization of the institutional educational project, which contains a pedagogical model with an emphasis on human capabilities and competencies, and for which the collection of information from a large number of students is impossible without a tool to digitalize and categorize it. The second aspect was the impossibility for other members of the administration to contribute relevant information, which called for flexibility to add value from different curriculum management professionals. The third, although no less important, was to be able to profile individual students to match their academic choices with the competencies required for accreditation. It was also necessary to gather all the academic information to design a curriculum that would highlight the skills and knowledge of the students.

Solution
Given the evident need to implement its institutional learning outcomes assessment system, UPB opened the way to evaluate a platform that would integrate all the solutions and allow the systematization of learning outcomes evidence and traceability of the competencies required for accreditation. This is how uPlanner's Academic Management solution reached the institution's board of directors.


"The implementation of the IT solution is constantly monitored and all the responses have been completely satisfactory for the institution."
Álvaro Gómez Fernández
Multicampus Academic Vicerrector, UPB.

Let's talk about your fundamental challenges.

Álvaro Gómez Fernández
Multicampus Academic Vicerrector, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. Colombia

Mónica Uribe Ríos
Currículum Coordinator, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. Colombia

Hugo Ricardo Cortés Useche
IT Architect, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. Colombia

Having a platform that manages curriculum coordination data has been one of the most significant improvements for UPB, as it has allowed the institution to continuously improve training processes, promoting error analysis to act on the improvement strategy, both in the renewals of qualified registrations and in high quality accreditations.

