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This chapter outlines how the comprehensive North American and European datasets were collected and explains the ensuing data cleaning process outlining three alternative methods applied to deal with missing values, the complete case, the multiple imputation (MI), and the K-nearest neighbor (KNN) methods. The complete case method is the conventional approach adopted in many mainstream management studies. We further discuss the implied assumption underlying use of this technique, which is rarely assessed, or tested in practice and explain the alternative imputation approaches in detail. Use of North American data is the norm but we also collected a European dataset, which is rarely done to enable subsequent comparative analysis between these geographical regions. We introduce the structure of firms organized within different industry classification schemes for use in the ensuing comparative analyses and provide base information on missing values in the original and cleaned datasets. The calculated performance indicators derived from the sampled data are defined and presented. We show how the three alternative approaches considered to deal with missing values have significantly different effects on the calculated performance measures in terms of extreme estimate ranges and mean performance values.

Numerous challenges in education emerge as our technology-driven society rapidly evolves and manifests more exigent requirements from engineering professionals. Higher education, nonetheless, seems to adapt to such requirements at an unequal speed, generating some tensions between industry and higher education institutions. The purpose of this paper is to share the experiences obtained through a process of assessment and redesign of a large enrollment course of programming from which the authors developed a systematic approach for course design/redesign.

A mixed method approach was deployed for data gathering and evaluation, consisting of close-ended surveys, open-ended questionnaires, information matrices and state of the art compilation. Triangulation of the information offered clear data about the necessity of curriculum redesign; therefore, a new programming course curriculum encompassed with relevant necessities in engineering and science was developed.

The authors produced a coherent and dynamic systematic path for assessment and design/redesign of course curriculum, which the authors find extremely helpful to improve negotiation processes inside higher education institutions, as it can be implemented to improve any large enrollment course curricula in engineering and science.

By following the systematic path for assessment and design/redesign of curricula the authors developed, higher education systems could embark more efficiently in the ever-challenging process of adapt their courses and programs to tackle the upcoming demands of our society.

So far, a systematic path for assessment and design/redesign of course curriculum was not published, and it supports the improvement of pedagogical approaches in academic institutions.