Unmasking the Impact of Teaching Workload on Learning Outcome Attainment in Outcome-Based Engineering Education: A Multi-Level Analysis of CLO and PLO Achievement

Abstract

Outcome-Based Education (OBE) has been widely adopted in engineering education as a systematic framework for curriculum design, teaching, assessment, and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) through clearly defined learning outcomes. Effective implementation of OBE requires continuous monitoring of Course Learning Outcome (CLO) and Program Learning Outcome (PLO) attainment to support evidence-based educational improvement. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between teaching conditions and learning outcome attainment by analyzing CLO and PLO achievement under different workload categories. CLO and PLO attainment data commonly used in higher education were analyzed using a 50% attainment benchmark across four workload levels: minimal, low, medium, and high. The results show that average CLO attainment ranged from 60% to 95% across different workload levels, indicating variations in course-level achievement under different teaching conditions. Program-level analysis showed that overall PLO attainment remained above the benchmark, demonstrating that OBE effectively supports the achievement of program outcomes while highlighting variations in course-level performance that provide valuable evidence for Continuous Quality Improvement. The findings demonstrate that systematic analysis of CLO and PLO attainment can support informed assessment practices, academic planning, and evidence-based decision-making, thereby strengthening the effective implementation of Outcome-Based Engineering Education.