Work-In-Progress: Teaching Quality Using Realistic Design and Implementation Projects

This work-in-progress innovative practice paper describes the updating of a class in Quality Control. Industrial Engineering 4516 Quality Assurance is an undergraduate course in statistical quality control and related techniques. The course has recently been overhauled, with updates to the lecture materials and the addition of application-based projects. The projects have two forms: a design project, in which students create a quality system for an imaginary medical device company, and an implementation project, in which students pick a problem and create a quality-based solution plan. The two approaches are alternated roughly every term. These approaches have been used for four semesters, with a total of more than 100 students. They have been assessed based on student feedback and faculty evaluation of the final products. In both cases, the projects themselves and the in-class exercises used to prepare the students for the projects were assessed by the students to be the most valuable parts of the class. The faculty assessment was positive; the projects are designed to integrate knowledge from the class, and successful completion of the projects is a strong indicator that students have learned the class material and are ready to use it in employment or further study.