Promoting Educational Innovations in the Accreditation of 3 Industrial Engineering Programs in Bogota

This innovative practice full paper answers the question of how high-quality accreditation promotes educational innovation in accredited industrial engineering programs in Bogota. Using the case study method, Higher Education Institutions in Colombia were selected as the context, three industrial engineering programs in Bogota as cases, and educational innovation processes in the accreditation process as the unit of analysis. In each program, a professor or an administrative involved in the accreditation process was selected, and as categories of analysis the learning experience, teaching practices, curricula, and institutional policies were studied. These categories were studied using semi-structured interviews that allowed an understanding of the experience lived in the accreditation process, and the documentary analysis was intended to make an analysis of the learning experience, the teaching practices, the curricula, and the institutional policies. It was concluded that educational innovation is a learning process in programs with only one accreditation since strong educational changes are promoted in the first accreditation. In comparison, programs with more than one accreditation do not need to include strong educational changes. Finally, it is recommended to focus the accreditation policy in Colombia on programs that want to be accredited for the first time, evaluating the learning experience in the student factor, the teaching practices in the teacher factor, and the curricula in the academic processes factor.