How Onshape Can Improve Student Outcomes & Support Accreditation

Engineering programs face mounting pressure to equip students with the skills and tools that not only reflect current industry standards but also support the rigorous outcomes-based approach required for accreditation set by organizations like ABET.

Onshape by PTC is uniquely able to support faculty in these efforts as a professional cloud-native CAD and PDM platform that is transforming engineering education.

Preparing Students with Industry Skills and Recognition

Onshape is the fastest-growing CAD platform in the industry, used by leading companies in robotics, medical devices, aerospace, consumer products, and more. By learning Onshape, students gain experience with a platform that’s not only modern but in high demand. This industry alignment directly supports ABET accreditation criteria that emphasize bridging the gap between academia and real-world engineering practice.

Project-Based Learning

Onshape’s cloud-native architecture allows students and faculty to collaborate in real time from any device, anywhere. This mirrors the distributed, global nature of modern engineering teams and prepares students for the collaborative workflows they’ll encounter in the workforce. Onshape streamlines the learning process so more instructional time can be spent learning best practices rather than on installation and file management. The collaboration skills and modeling best practices learned from Onshape are transferable to any CAD platform students may eventually encounter.

Industry Certification

Onshape offers a certification program that allows students to validate their CAD skills with a recognized credential. The Certified Onshape Associate credential enhances student resumes and portfolios with a verifiable achievement. It also aligns with ABET accreditation standards for lifelong learning and professional preparation. By integrating certification preparation into coursework, universities can give students a tangible goal that reinforces course content and boosts employability.

Streamlined CAD Management for Faculty

Unlike traditional CAD software, there’s no need for installations, updates, or hardware constraints—students can focus on learning and innovating.

For universities, Onshape eliminates the need for expensive hardware labs and complex IT support. Students can bring their own devices, including Chromebooks, Macs, and Windows machines. Onshape’s cloud infrastructure scales effortlessly, making it ideal for large classes or remote learning environments—an increasingly important consideration in today’s hybrid education models.

Since Onshape is accessed via the browser, every user is on the same version at the same time. There is no need to worry about updates or file compatibility. The fileless structure also makes it easier for students to submit their work.

Rather than zipping up files or sending a “pack-and-go,” students can submit in Onshape or directly link to their document in the school’s LMS. There are not multiple copies named FINAL V1, FINAL V2, etc. There is one source of truth, with the versions and iterations tracked directly in Onshape.

Onshape’s Education Enterprise plan offers powerful administrative tools for managing courses, assignments, and student progress. Instructors can easily create and distribute assignments. They can monitor student work in real time or review document versions and history to validate student design processes. In cases where academic integrity has been questioned, the full audit trail can aid in an investigation. Using built-in commenting capabilities, instructors can even provide feedback directly within the platform. These features simplify course management and enhance the student learning experience.

Powerful Tools for Accreditation

Onshape’s differentiated feature set supports universities going through the ABET accreditation process.

ABET accreditation emphasizes student outcomes such as:

• An ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions
• Effective communication
• Ethical and professional responsibility
• Effective teamwork
• Lifelong learning

Onshape directly supports these outcomes by:

• Encouraging iterative design and problem-solving, key components of engineering design thinking
• Facilitating team-based projects with real-time editing and commenting
• Enabling version control and design history, which teaches accountability and traceability
• Providing analytics and dashboards for instructors to assess participation and progress
• Empowering users to learn new content and develop professional skills to stay relevant with current trends

Preparing for ABET accreditation requires detailed documentation of student performance, learning outcomes, and continuous improvement efforts. Onshape’s built-in analytics tools make this process significantly easier by automatically tracking student modeling and collaboration metrics. Classes and assignments dashboards show detailed information like how much time students spent on a specific assignment and the features used.

Faculty can use this data to determine student proficiency in CAD best practices and guide adjustments to curriculum. This data may be exported to demonstrate alignment with ABET criteria, making accreditation reviews smooth and simple.

Because Onshape is cloud-native, all data is securely stored and easily accessible—no need to compile files from different machines or worry about lost work. With the enterprise, this data stays with the institution as students and faculty move on. This centralized access to performance data supports a more efficient and evidence-based accreditation process.

Final Thoughts

Adopting Onshape isn’t just a technology upgrade that will improve student and faculty user experience—it’s a strategic move that aligns with the core values of ABET accreditation: innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement. By integrating Onshape into the curriculum, universities can better prepare students for the future of engineering while meeting and exceeding accreditation standards.