This basic tenet serves the Christos M. Cotsakos College of Business as a guide in developing, refining, and implementing assessment tools that address the Assurance of Learning initiative, and subsequently enact requisite continuous improvement.

Assurance of Learning mandates the development and successful attainment of learning objectives and goals, both General and Management-Specific.  General education goals embody those skills related to: 

• Oral and written communications skills, listening skills, and electronic communications, 
• Problem-solving ability and analytical reasoning, 
• Ethical, behavioral, and moral reasoning, and 
• Cultural perspectives, tolerance and flexibility, and social systems, among other things.

• The creation of value through the production and distribution of goods and/or services,
• Global, political, economic, legal, and the regulatory context for business,
• Organizational dynamics and managerial competencies,
• Information acquisition and utilization as it applies to effective decision making, and collaborative and competitive interaction skills, and
• Individual societal responsibilities and issues of diversity in organizations.

Assessment Tool 1: The Annual Stakeholders’ Conference
This activity is held annually, in autumn, and involves participants including current undergraduate and graduate students, undergraduate and graduate alumni, faculty from outside the College of Business, and business leaders.  Issues related to student learning are addressed first in small groups, then integrated between groups in a large group session.  The conference provides the College of Business with an opportunity to contrast and assess viewpoints of: 

(a) Individuals currently in College of Business programs, 
(b) Alumni who have graduated and can assess the value of their learning experience as it relates to the workforce, 
(c) Community business leaders, who serve as external constituencies.  These participants inject their expertise and perspectives as persons who put knowledge into practice daily.  Business leaders also provide insight into trends and anticipated demands on graduates, and
(d) faculty external to the College of Business, who can offer insight concerning potential cross functional linkages between general and management-specific curriculum objectives.

Assessment Tool 3: The Employer Survey
The College of Business annually assesses student learning through this person-to-person assessment tool. Conducted each summer, the Dean/Associate Dean contacts numerous employers that have a demonstrated history of employing College of Business students.  The results of the survey allow for the extraction of student strengths and limitations, in addition to alternative opportunities for learning that will assist/guide in redesigning the College of Business program missions, college curriculum, course learning objectives, and professional enrichment activities.

Assessment Tool 4: The Job Placement Analysis
The College of Business, in cooperation with the Career Development Center, perform an annual assessment concerning job placement for College of Business graduates.  Information gathered includes job placement rates, positions obtained, corporate opportunities, and job attributes. The assessment provides the College of Business with important information concerning the competitiveness of graduates, the institutional image and corporate perception of business program offerings, and the appropriateness and effectiveness of professional enrichment activities and learning objectives. 

Assurance of learning is also addressed through the use of course-embedded performance measurements that are grounded in both the general and management-specific learning objectives. One of many examples is described, below. 

Assessment Tool 5: The “Triple Crown Winner”
This required concentration/major specific course integrates reading, writing, and speaking into course requirements.  Hence the course simultaneously addresses the College of Business learning objectives involving communications skills (writing, speaking) and the reading of and reporting on contemporary topical matter that is external to textbook coverage.

The assessment of information acquisition, usefulness, and utilization is also addressed by:

Assessment Tool 6: The Annual Alumni Survey
This survey, conducted with alumni usually one and five years following graduation, facilitates the assessment of short and long-term relative strengths of acquired communications skills, professional recognition rate of graduates, and general academic program efficacy in instilling relevant job specific knowledge, values, and abilities.

In order to identify potential failures in achieving Assurance of Learning, the College of Business conducts, each semester:

Assessment Tool 7: The Retention Study
Conducted by phone, a sample of College of Business students in good standing who fail to register for an upcoming semester are contacted for the purpose of ascertaining potential failures in College of Business processes, curriculum, or other criteria that impact on student retention and/or discourage continued study.

There are numerous additional factors that have significant impact on the ability of the College of Business to address Assurance of Learning and enact continuous improvement.  These factors are assessed and reviewed utilizing additional assessment tools, described below.

Assessment Tool 8: The Scholarship Portfolio
All full time faculty are expected to demonstrate current expertise, professional development, and intellectually activity, supported by the continued production of written artifacts and intellectual contributions within the field of expertise.  Moreover, faculty who teach graduate courses are ordinarily chosen from those who meet rigorous College of Business scholarship standards. All full time faculty are expected to maintain scholarship portfolios that contain the set of intellectual contributions produced over the most recent five year window.  This portfolio is used to review scholarship activity, and it impacts on travel and summer research support, as well as teaching deployment, load and MBA teaching assignments.  The College of Business, utilizing internal incentive mechanisms, encourage all faculty to remain active on the cutting edge of knowledge in their respective field, and to integrate this knowledge and their research in a meaningful way within the classroom in order to satisfy learning objectives related to academic excellence and relevance.

Assessment Tool 9: The Teaching Evaluation
Teaching excellence and instructional effectiveness is critical to the achievement of student learning. Hence the College of Business mandates the assessment of teaching by both students and peers.  These evaluations help identify potential limitations in teaching ability and are a component in the annual review of untenured and adjunct faculty by the Dean, subsequently impacting on faculty retention and reappointment.

Assessment Tool 10: The Assessment of Tenured Faculty and the Annual Report
All faculty must submit an annual report concerning their contributions to the department, college, and university, as well as professional development and pedagogical achievements or activities.  A review of these reports by the relevant department chair and the Dean help address potential reorientation of faculty priorities, both individual and aggregate, in consonance  with college-wide accepted relative emphases on teaching, scholarship, and service.  Moreover, tenured faculty are required to submit assessment portfolios for the purpose of identifying potential areas where professional development might be pursued and desirable.  Professional development for all faculty is supported by the Dean and is incentive-driven.

Assessment Tool 11: The Instructional Resource Survey
This survey, conducted bi-annually among College of Business students, is utilized to assess the appropriateness and utilization of academic support materials, including (a) basic infrastructure, such as classrooms, laboratories, or communications equipment, (b) learning materials, including library resources, databases, and course specific software and web based resources, and (c) technology and technological support services. 

Assessment Tool 12: The Exit Survey
This survey, distributed within class among students who are graduating, provides an assessment of the general academic climate and perception of the academic experience for each College of Business student.

Assessment Tool 13: The Advising Survey
This survey is utilized specifically for the purpose of jointly addressing student retention, personalized interactive resources available for guidance in planning and implementing academic action plans, and career advising.

Assessment Tool 14: The Event Surveys
The College of Business regularly sponsors professional enrichment activities to promote the professional awareness and readiness of its graduates.  In order to maintain quality and continue to build upon and improve on its co-curricular activities, the College of Business utilizes survey tools to assess effectiveness.  For example, recent event surveys have been utilized in the Financial Symposium, Resume Writing Seminar, Business Leaders’ Symposium, Stress Management Seminar, and Advising Information Session.

Assessment Tool 15: The Assurance Grid
This visual assessment device provides cross tabulations between learning goals and objectives, curriculum requirements, other College of Business co-curricular activities, and survey tools. Results are utilized to monitor for (a) appropriate emphasis on and (b) diversification of delivery systems related to learning goals and objectives as they impact on the Assurance of Learning.

This College of Business also addresses Assurance of Learning through its implementation of:

The Professional Enrichment Point Requirement
Students earn enrichment points through their active participation in seminars, forums, symposiums, learning workshops, job fairs, job shadowing, …  The College of Business point initiative (a) provides a systematic procedure whereby students will attend those events that cater specifically to their personal professional development, and (b) assists in developing student readiness and awareness of business related issues as they approach graduation.

The Retention Standard:
The College of Business carefully monitors student progress, provides early warning, intervenes where appropriate, and separates students from programs, if necessary. This helps ensure that continuing students are of high academic quality while simultaneously offering early warning and support to those that have demonstrated a lack of progress in College of Business programs.

Finally, the College of Business has in place a formal process and structure for overseeing outcomes assessment initiatives.

The Outcomes Assessment Committee:
This committee oversees the development, refinement, and successful implementation of all assessment tools.  In addition, the committee, chaired by the Associate Dean, conducts data analyses and report preparation for every assessment result compiled. The Dean formally reviews all assessment reports, and in coordination with the committee helps to prepare a year end annual presentation, supported by PowerPoint slides, to the College of Business faculty.  Ensuing discussion among the faculty revolves around the identification of salient outcomes, proposed action plans to address identifiable limitations, opportunities for innovation, and suggestions for continuous improvement.

In summary, the Christos M. Cotsakos College of Business is committed to quality maintenance and the Assurance of Learning. Both faculty members and administrators share the responsibility of ensuring instructional quality through continuous improvement and innovation. The assessment tools described above form the basis from which such continuous improvement is enacted. The College utilizes both internal and external constituencies in order to elicit information that supports progress towards the goal of preparing its students for meaningful and productive careers, and the successful transition of its student body from an academic environment to a diversified and international professional arena.  Whether it be academic excellence, professional enrichment, competitive technological competencies, or effective communications skills, the College of Business is driven by its mission to be a leader and innovator within the upper echelon of business programs! 

Assessment requires attention to outcomes but also and equally to the experiences that lead to those outcomes¹ .

For additional information concerning Assurance of Learning, outcomes assessment, or continuous improvement, feel free to correspond or forward your comments to:

Martin Gritsch, Ph.D.
Assessment Corrdinator: Christos M. Cotsakos College of Business
973.720.2977
gritschm@wpunj.edu
_________________
¹ American Association of Higher Education, Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning.