Approaches to Assurance of Learning 

 2. Course-embedded measurement:  Required courses may expose students to systematic learning experiences designed to produce graduates with the particular knowledge or abilities specified in the school's learning goals.  In such cases, the school can establish assessments within the required courses for those learning goals.  Some examples of course-embedded measurement might be:

• A school that has a written communication learning goal might specify that a particular course will have required writing exercises in it.  Such exercises could serve the assessment needs of the course and also provide the school with assurance that students meet the learning goal in written communication.  The course-embedded measurements must be constructed to demonstrate whether students achieve the school’s learning goals, and the measurements must be a mandated part of that course.  
• A school with learning goals that require students to integrate knowledge across business functional areas or to incorporate ethical considerations into decision-making, may embed the measurement of accomplishment on those goals into a capstone business-strategy course.  In addition to the information provided for course assessment by the projects that measure learning on these topics, the assessments provide the school with the assurance measures needed to ascertain whether the school's learning goals are being met. 

In the accreditation review process, reviewers will expect schools to have examples of student work available for inspection at the on-site review when they use course-embedded measurement to assure that students accomplish learning goals.  Schools should present examples of student performance on tests or in course project work.  The school should show how information from these measurements informs the school’s management of the educational process.  Schools should describe the processes they use to see that the information from the course-embedded measurements inform the schools' management processes and lead to improvement efforts.  

Approaches to Assurance of Learning:

1. Selection

2. Course-embedded measurement

3. Demonstration through stand-alone testing or performance