Division of Academic Affairs
Annual Assessment Report
For Undergraduate & Graduate Degree Programs
AY 2008-2009
nnual
gera
Name of Program: Business Administration - Graduate
College:
Prepared by: Soheila Jorjani
Date: June 17, 2009
Business
Department Chair/Program Coordinator
Email Address:
[email protected]
Extension: x4271
PART A (Required by May 21, 2009 – last day of Spring semester)
1)
Please describe the student learning outcomes you focused on for assessment this year,
the assessment activities you used to measure student learning in these areas, and the
results of your assessments. Please also comment on the significance of your results.
The following student learning outcomes were developed by the MBA Program Committee for the
revised curriculum:
i. Create solutions to managerial problems using qualitative and quantitative tools.
ii. Identify changing business environments and adapt business processes to those environments.
iii. Demonstrate the ability to be an empowered member of an organization.
iv. Advocate for socially responsible and ethical managerial decisions.
In AY 2007-2008 assessment rubrics and forms were developed to measure the first goal. After
reviewing the data from the courses taught during that academic year, the MBA Program
Committee determined that the forms needed to be reviewed and revised since the instructors each
interpreted them differently. Consequently, the program decided to revise the forms and continue
assessing the first goal using the modified forms.
For the courses taught in the academic year 2008-2009, the instructors were asked to identify the
measures (exam questions, papers. presentation, etc.) that they used to assess students mastery of
these learning outcomes. They reported, using these measures, the percentage of the students who
fell in each category of the rubrics. They were also asked to write a paragraph reflecting on how
well the students met the learning outcome, identifying any potential problems they noticed,
explaining the use and the meaning of this information to them and what they might do differently
in their class next time and why.
Below please find a brief summary:
Managerial Economics (summer 2008)
The instructor for this course reported that 100 percent of the students were at the “meet
expectations” or “below expectations” ranks. In fact, in the area of quantitative skills and
qualitative skills he reported that less than 50 percent of the students met expectations and the
majority were below expectations. He did not report any unsatisfactory percentage. He
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Annual Report on Assessment of Degree Programs, AY 2008-09
contributed this performance to the fact several students had never had any economics courses at
the undergraduate level and had limited knowledge of basic differential calculus. His
recommendation to the program is to either require prerequisites in these areas or offer a
preparatory course.
Marketing Management (summer 2008)
All students ranked in the categories of “meets expectations,” ”exceeds expectations, or "well
exceeds expectations”. The class emphasized using marketing concepts for business analysis.
The mode of evaluation was several short cases, a simulation and a final paper. Based on the
student’s performance, the instructor was able to fine tune the rubrics used in her class to provide
better feedback to the students. The students found it difficult to manage the breadth of material
required for this course in a shortened summer term. Before teaching the class again the instructor
will spend time developing activities to move more students higher on the assessment ratings.
Financial Decision Making (fall 2008)
The instructor did not report any unsatisfactory percentages. The majority of the students met
expectations in all three areas of creating solutions, quantitative skills and qualitative skills. The
instructor reported positively on the preparation level of the students on the finance topic.
Global Negotiations – Elective (fall 2008)
The Harvard Negotiation Project approach to win-win negotiation was used in the first part of the
class. The instructor reported that 100 percent of the students ranked in the categories of “meets
expectations,” or “exceeds expectations, “or “well exceeds expectations”. The instructor also
reported that students found it challenging to balance the focus on win-win negotiating strategies
while adapting to cultural differences. That was the point of the class. By participating in
activities that forced students to address the challenges, to experiment with tactics for meeting the
challenges, and to observe the effectiveness of specific tactics, the students were able to meet the
challenge.
How did your program utilize any resources provided for assessment this year? Please
attach a budget with specifics.
2)
CoBA did not receive any budget this year for assessment.
3)
As a result of your assessment findings, what changes at either the course- or programlevel are being made and/or proposed in order to improve student learning? Please
articulate how your assessment findings suggest the need for any proposed changes.
In addition to the above activities, we underwent our external review for the PEP. For that
report, the reviewers received our current student learning outcomes.
We are using the reviewer’s feedback to determine our next step.
A preliminary conclusion is that we are still too early in the assessment process to have made
changes at the course or program level based on these findings. As is mentioned below, it
appears that we first need to further refine our student learning outcomes.
Academic Programs/DB
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Annual Report on Assessment of Degree Programs, AY 2008-09
PART B
Planning for Assessment in 2009-2010
(Required by May 21, 2009)
4)
Please identify one or two student learning outcomes that your program will focus on for
assessment next year.
Since the MBA program is a new program, there is a great need for data at each course level.
We will continue gathering data at the course level for the first learning outcome and develop
rubrics for assessing the second learning outcome; identify changing business environments and adapt
business processes to those environments.
5)
What specific assessment activities will you conduct next year in order to measure
program student learning in these areas
The first offering of this MBA program will be completed at the end of Spring semester 2010.
During that Spring semester MBA students will take the Project Course which is the
culminating course requiring integration of everything that has been learned in the program.
The MBA Committee will develop rubrics to assess the student learning from that course. The
MBA committee can then review the learning outcome assessments from each individual
course as well as the Project Course and re-evaluate the program learning objectives to
determine whether further modification may be necessary.
This revisiting of the four learning outcomes was also recommended by the PEP reviewers.
6)
What new or additional resources/support might your program need in order to
conduct these assessment activities next year? (Please provide specific information
regarding your needs and related costs)
As also mentioned in the undergraduate assessment plan for 2009- 2010, an excellent use of
funds would be to bring an AACSB person on campus (one who specializes in assessment workshops)
to collaborate with a group of faculty to help write learning outcomes for the undergraduate
program and revise the MBA learning outcomes. This will help us formulate an Assessment
Plan as required by AACSB (that specifies how each of the learning outcomes will be measured).
Funding to help us bring that person to campus would be helpful.
The cost is approximately $2000 to bring someone who has that AACSB experience.
One of the recommendations of the PEP reviewers was to create a separate committee (apart
from the college Undergraduate and MBA Curriculum Committee) that would
be responsible for assessment. Given that this will be a new committee with a heavy
workload, having some support for faculty who volunteer would be helpful in getting this off
to a good start. Unfortunately, given the budget, the College is not able at this time to provide
such funding. A $200 stipend for 4 faculty would be helpful.
Academic Programs/DB
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