Barrier Factors in Implementing of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) Curriculum in Engineering Education at the Public Universities in Laos

The purpose of this research was to dig strategic information from Faculty member’s related to therelationship between barrier factors such as government legislation toward OBE, government policy and budget toward OBE, stakeholders’ involvement in OBE development, instructional supervision, resource-material and facilities, faculty member personnel, and leaners. This study hypothesizes that barrier factors affect the implementation of the OBE curriculum of engineering education in four public universities in Laos, namely- National University of Laos, Champasack University; Savannakhet University; Souphanouvong University. This study applies a mixed approach. A 5-point Likert scale data from 267 faculty members through a questionnaire was quantitatively analyzed using the multiple regression Analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 faculty members of the four public universities to gain qualitative data on their perspectives on the barriers to implementing the OBE curriculum in engineering education. The findings of multiple regression analysis show that government legislation, government policy and budget, instructional supervision, resources-materials and facilities, and faculty member’s personnel are statistically significant, indicating that these factors affect the success of OBE curriculum practices. Meanwhile, the qualitative results reveal that lecturers from four public universities shared the same opinion that these five factors are prominent barriers to implementing the OBE curriculum at state universities. Nevertheless, the quantitative and qualitative findings of stakeholders involving OBE development factor and learners’ personal factor showed the opposite scenario.