The system of record for ABET accreditation
Your program's ABET record, kept in one place all year: the evidence, the outcome mapping, the Criterion 4 trail and the files you need from faculty. When the self-study is due, Digital Accreditation Lab (dal.ai) drafts each section from that record and cites the source behind every claim. Nothing reaches ABET without your sign-off.
For bachelor's programs in all four ABET commissions: EAC, CAC, ETAC and ANSAC.
45 minutes with example documents. Nothing to prepare, no account, no card.
ABET accreditation shouldn't be a scramble every six years
Getting files from faculty
Syllabi, graded samples and rubric results sit with individual faculty, and getting them in on time is a job of its own.
With dal.ai, you ask a named faculty member for exactly the files you need. They upload through a link with no account to set up, and the files land in your evidence library.
Watch: Ask faculty for filesClosing the loop on Criterion 4
Criterion 4 asks you to show that assessment results led to real changes, and that the changes worked. That trail spans six years and several people, and it is hard to rebuild after the fact.
dal.ai keeps each improvement cycle in four stages: assessed, evaluated, action taken, verified. It drafts each stage from your accepted evidence, and a loop counts as closed only once you accept that it was verified.
Watch: one Criterion 4 loopAssembling the self-study
The self-study pulls from syllabi, outcome maps, assessment results and committee minutes, usually in the last few months before it is due.
dal.ai reads each file, proposes the criteria and student outcomes it supports, and quotes the passage behind it. Upload a syllabus and it suggests how the course maps to your student outcomes. You accept or correct each one, and only accepted evidence reaches the report.
Watch: course to outcome mappingThe record that leaves with one person
Files on a shared drive, results in a spreadsheet, the reasoning in someone's inbox. When that person moves on, the next coordinator inherits a folder and finds the gaps six months before the visit.
dal.ai keeps it all in one shared workspace that coordinators, faculty and the next program director can open. Coverage by student outcome and criterion builds as you go, so you see the gaps before gaps become findings.
Your program's record in one place, with the gaps in plain sight
Upload your evidence
Syllabi, assessment results, committee minutes and other records. dal.ai proposes the criteria and student outcomes each file supports, and you accept or correct each one.
See where you stand
Coverage by student outcome and criterion builds as you accept evidence and link it to courses, so you see the gaps while there is still time to close them.
Draft, review, export
dal.ai drafts self-study sections from accepted evidence only and cites the source behind every claim. Where the evidence is not there, the draft names what is missing instead of filling the gap. You review and approve every word, then export a PDF.
The judgment stays with you
The hard part of accreditation was never the typing. It was the judgment, and that stays with the people who have done this work for years. dal.ai puts AI at your disposal and keeps it under your control.
Every claim traces back to your files.
Drafts and the in-app assistant work only from the evidence you uploaded and ABET's criteria and self-study questionnaire for your commission. They cite the source behind every claim, and your original files are never altered.
Gaps are named, not filled.
When the evidence isn't there, dal.ai tells you what is missing instead of inventing it.
Nothing is final until you approve it.
You review, edit and accept every sentence, and anything you have not approved is flagged in the report itself. dal.ai does not decide anything and does not submit anything.
ABET's published AI policy allows AI to gather and synthesize information, support the analysis of assessment data, and help organize supporting materials, as long as people oversee the work and verify everything submitted. It also asks programs to acknowledge their use of AI, and the institution attests to the accuracy of what it submits. dal.ai is built for exactly that split: it gathers and drafts, and your people judge, approve and attest. Read ABET's policy →
dal.ai is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by ABET.
Get to know dal.ai one small step at a time
dal.ai is new, so you shouldn't have to take it on trust. Each step is small, private, and yours to stop. Working with dal.ai now means you work directly with me, Sean, and the app adapts to how your program works.
- 1
A 45-minute session.
We use example documents, so there is nothing to prepare. You see dal.ai classify files, map a course to student outcomes, and draft a cited self-study section with the gaps named. Ask to see anything run live.
- 2
A private 30-day trial.
You and a few colleagues you trust, one criterion, your own documents. I do the setup, no student data is needed, and there is no cost, within the AI usage limits in our fair use terms. Whatever you decide, you keep the cited draft and the gap list.
- 3
A 12-week pilot on one program.
At no cost, within the AI usage limits in our fair use terms, alongside your current process. We agree one goal in writing at the start, you name one owner at about two hours a month, and we book a decision call for week 11. There is nothing to cancel and nothing to unwind.
Each step is optional. Take as many as you need to feel sure. A program that is ready can go straight from the session to the pilot, or simply subscribe.
Your current process keeps running.
dal.ai sits alongside the shared drive and spreadsheets you already use. Nothing has to be migrated or retired.
Your evidence stays yours.
Download every file you uploaded as one zip with a manifest, at any time, even after you stop paying.
We name a program only with its permission, and we ask at the end, not the start.
Book a 45-minute sessionWhen you're ready, the price
Annual plans start at $4,389 a year, invoiced to your institution. Weigh that against what the work costs today: rebuilding the record before every visit, chasing faculty for files, and outside help in a review year.
See all plans →Prefer to start on your own? Create an account. Managing more than 10 programs? See Campus Enterprise on the pricing page.
Why I'm building this
Hi, I'm Sean, a software engineer who has spent the last year listening to program directors, coordinators and deans describe ABET accreditation from the inside. One program director told me:
"I'm seriously considering resigning to avoid the self-study work next year."
No one should want to quit their job to avoid accreditation prep. I'm building dal.ai so the software holds the record together, and the people can get back to teaching, research, and the judgment only they can make.
Book a 45-minute sessionFrequently asked questions
You would not, and I would not recommend it. A program deep into a self-study should finish the way it started. dal.ai is built to run in parallel: keep your drive, keep your documents, and use dal.ai to see where the evidence trail has holes while there is still time to fix them. It helps most for a program two to four years out from a review, not one six months out.
We meet on a video call. I walk you through dal.ai using example documents: it classifies the files, maps a course to student outcomes, and drafts a cited self-study section with the gaps named. Ask to see anything you like. There is nothing to prepare and no account to create.
A trial for you and a few colleagues you trust, on one criterion, using your own documents. I set up the workspace for you, no student data is needed, and there is no cost, within the AI usage limits in our fair use terms. At the end you keep the cited draft and the gap list, whatever you decide.
A pilot on one program, at no cost within the AI usage limits in our fair use terms, running alongside your current process. We agree one goal in writing at the start, you name one owner at about two hours a month, and we book a decision call for week 11. There is nothing to cancel and nothing to unwind. You can start a pilot after the private trial, or straight after the 45-minute session.
You download it. User Settings has an export that packages every file you uploaded, in its original format, with a manifest listing what is what. That export stays available after a subscription ends, so a lapsed account can still get its files out. There is no proprietary container and no export charge.
You shouldn't have to, at first. That is why every step is small: a 45-minute session, a private trial on one criterion, then a pilot that runs alongside your current process. Nothing reaches ABET without your sign-off, and every file you upload can be downloaded back at any time, even after you stop paying.
Yes. dal.ai is live for bachelor's programs in all four ABET commissions. The quickest way to see it is a 45-minute session using example documents, with nothing to prepare. You can also take the 5-minute tour, or create an account and start on your own.
No. You can create an account and start on your own. Most programs start with a 45-minute session with me, because it is the quickest way to see dal.ai work on documents like theirs.
Pricing is per campus. One program is $4,389 a year, up to five programs $8,789, and up to ten $13,189. Annual plans include one month free and can be invoiced to your institution. Monthly billing is also available. Campuses with more than ten programs pay the Institution plan price of $13,189 a year plus $1,100 a year for each program above ten, invoiced to the institution.
Each plan covers the programs at one campus. ABET accredits a program at a specific campus, so the same degree offered at two campuses counts as two separate programs, one at each location. If your programs run across more than one campus, contact us and we will scope the right setup for your campuses.
dal.ai supports bachelor's degree programs in all four ABET commissions: EAC (engineering), CAC (computing), ETAC (engineering technology) and ANSAC (applied and natural science). That includes each commission's General Criteria and official self-study questionnaire. dal.ai drafts each section from your evidence and cites the source behind every claim; you review and approve, and anything you haven't approved is flagged right in the report so nothing reaches ABET without your sign-off.
A general-purpose AI tool answers from generic knowledge and can confidently invent a citation it can't support. dal.ai works only from the evidence you upload and your commission's official ABET criteria and self-study questionnaire, and it cites the source behind every claim. Where the evidence isn't there, it tells you what's missing instead of filling the gap. A chat window also belongs to one person. dal.ai keeps the evidence, the decisions and the drafts in a shared workspace your coordinator, your faculty and the next program director can all open.
Yes, with people in charge. ABET's published AI policy allows AI to gather and synthesize information, support the analysis of assessment data, and help organize supporting materials. Everything submitted must be verified by qualified people, AI must not alter or misrepresent evidence, programs should acknowledge their use of AI, and the institution attests to the accuracy of the report. dal.ai drafts from your evidence without changing it, and your people review, approve and attest.
Generated self-study output is checked against the official ABET commission documents using a dual-validator process. Each run is captured, dated, and pinned to the exact ABET source documents by SHA-256. If your procurement team asks how the output is checked, there is a documented answer, and I will walk them through it.
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Documents you upload are processed by Anthropic, our AI model provider, under commercial terms that do not allow your content to be used to train its models. Assessment evidence can include student work, so dal.ai will sign a FERPA agreement with your institution and act as a school official for any student information you upload. Where you can, use summary data and remove student names and IDs. We do not sell your information or use it for anything except running dal.ai for your program.
No. If you can upload a file and read a dashboard, you can use dal.ai. We designed it for program directors and department chairs, not IT departments.
dal.ai covers the full criteria spectrum for all four commissions (EAC, CAC, ETAC, ANSAC): the General Criteria plus the discipline-specific program criteria. When you set up a program, its commission and discipline are part of the configuration, so dal.ai works from the program-specific criteria that apply to it, not just the General Criteria.
Consultants bring deep expertise at specific moments: preparing for a site visit, writing an SSR, coaching through a difficult criterion. dal.ai solves a different problem: it's the system of record your program lives in year-round, so when a consultant or PEV walks in, your evidence is already organized. Many programs use both.
dal.ai is designed to complement your existing assessment tools, not replace them. Today you upload your evidence, meaning exports, reports, and documents from whatever systems you use, and dal.ai works from what you provide.