Accreditation Standards
Assurance of Learning Standards
EXAMPLES
OF LEARNING GOALS AND MEASURES OF ACHIEVEMENT
Example 1
School A has defined a learning
goal in ethical reasoning for all of its undergraduate majors.
Student achievement on this goal is relevant to demonstrating
satisfaction of Standard 16.
The school’s faculty has defined the goal:
Learning Goal
“Each student
can recognize and analyze ethical problems and choose and defend resolutions for
practical situations that occur in accounting, human resource management, and
marketing.”
Demonstration of Achievement
The school uses
course-embedded exercises in three required introductory-level courses.
Faculty in the three disciplines have developed different methods for
instructing and assessing achievement toward this learning goal.
In accounting, a
two-week module near the end of the introductory course is devoted to “Ethical
standards and fraud in accounting.” A topic outline has been developed
by faculty members to structure an exam on the materials of this module, and a
standard set of expectations has been created for grading the exam. In
addition to this exam’s contribution to the course grade, it provides a
pass/fail indication on the learning goal.
In human resource management, students must provide
four written analyses of problem situations during the course.
On three of these analyses (on the topics of selection, reward systems,
and job design), students are asked to respond to ethical issues.
A standard scoring key on the ethical component provides evaluation
toward the course grade and a pass/fail indication on the learning goal.
In marketing, each student must compose a term
paper analyzing a current national or international marketing campaign.
The analysis must include a specified set of components, and ethical
issues that have been presented in lectures are among the required components.
In addition to the overall grade of the paper, each student receives a
pass/fail indicator on the ethics component.
In addition to reporting course grades, each
instructor of these three courses provides a checklist of all of those students
who successfully completed the ethics expectation. This information is a part of each student’s record and all
three parts of the learning goal must be achieved before graduation.
Students who fail the ethics evaluation while passing the course repeat
the evaluation exercise or ethics module until they are successful.
Example 2
School
B has a communications learning goal that is a part of its expectations for all
undergraduate degrees. Student
achievement on this goal is relevant to demonstrating satisfaction of Standard
16. The school’s faculty has
defined the goal:
Learning Goal
“Each
student can conceptualize a complex issue into a coherent written statement and
oral presentation.”
Demonstration of Achievement
The
school uses course-embedded exercises to demonstrate achievement of this
learning goal. The Strategic
Management course required of each student in the final year of the program
includes among its course evaluations a written analysis of a multi-functional
case study and an oral presentation on an industry-wide analysis. A faculty task force has developed a standardized scoring key
for use with these two exercises. Using
dimensions agreed to by the faculty, each student’s performance on these
exercises is evaluated. Students
must repeat the exercises until they have satisfactorily accomplished minimum
levels of performance.
Example 3
School
C has a language requirement for the M.S. in International Business degree.
Student achievement on this goal is relevant to demonstrating
satisfaction of Standard 19 for students in the MSIB program.
The school’s faculty has defined the goal:
Learning Goal
“Each
student shall be able to converse and to write at an acceptable level for
business communications in three languages one of which shall be English.”
Demonstration of Achievement
Specific
stand-alone examinations are used to measure performance on this learning goal.
Each student shall pass the conversation-level exam in two languages
other than his or her native language. If
English is not the native language, it must be one of the examined languages.
The language department of the institution administers a program of
standardized exams consisting of both oral and written components. Students
may take the exams at any time during their enrollment in the MSIB
program. No student is eligible for graduation until the language requirement is
met.
Example 4
School D has defined a learning
goal for all students in general management master’s programs (MBA, EMBA,
Master’s of Project Management) related to the understanding of organizational
financial resources.
Student achievement on this goal is relevant to demonstrating
satisfaction of Standard 18.
The school’s faculty has defined the goal:
Learning
Goal
“Each student shall be able to evaluate the financial position of
organizations through examination of balance sheets, cash flow statements, and
budgets.”
Demonstration
of Achievement
The school uses a course-embedded examination to assess performance on this
learning goal.
The final examination in the required Financial Accounting course
includes a section specifically aimed at assessment of this goal at a level that
has been determined by the accounting faculty.
A student’s performance on this section must satisfy the minimal level,
or it must be retaken until it is passed.
Students for whom the Financial Accounting course is waived by virtue of
undergraduate accounting coursework, must satisfactorily pass an equivalent
examination.
Example
5
School E has defined a learning goal pertaining to all master’s level degree
programs. The
goal relates to teamwork skills and, it is relevant to demonstrating
satisfaction of Standards 18 and 19.
The school’s faculty has defined the goal:
Learning
Goal
“Each student must understand and be able to use team building and
collaborative behaviors in the accomplishment of group tasks.”
Demonstration
of Achievement
A course-embedded exercise is used to assess performance on this learning goal.
The required Organizational Behavior course has an extensive
assessment-center module which trains all students as assessment center
evaluators on team-behavior dimensions, and all students are rated for team
skills in a series of group experiences.
Performance as both rater and team member is combined into an evaluation
on the learning goal.
|
