Assessment Highlights for the Undergraduate Program

The School of Business established a set of program goals and outcomes and collects assessment data to measure student achievement of these outcomes. In the past school year 2006-2007, we assessed outcomes related to knowledge and skills in areas of business. We used course-embedded assessment techniques to gather data on forty-seven outcomes in sixteen undergraduate courses. We are happy to report 100-percent participation of resident faculty in course-embedded assessment.

We collect assessment data every semester. The faculty then use benchmarks to evaluate the data, and establish whether the student learning in an outcome is Excellent, Satisfactory, or Needs Improvement. In 2006-2007, the performance of students in most outcomes was Satisfactory. Eight outcomes were seen as Excellent in Fall 2006, and eight outcomes were Excellent again in Spring 2007. Three outcomes were identified as needing improvement in Fall 2006, four outcome needed improvement in Spring 2007. For the outcomes that needed improvement, the faculty developed changes in course structure aimed at improving student achievement.

The School also uses the ETS Major Field Test in Business to measure the knowledge and skills of all graduates. The results of the national standardized ETS test taken by the graduates provide external validation to our course-embedded assessment data. The School’s graduates performed very strongly on this national test in Spring 2007. In particular, the average score of IU Kokomo students was in the 90 th percentile in compared to all institutions participating in the ETS testing nationally. This sample includes 181 institutions and 8,986 students in 2006-07.

In 2007-2008, we continue to collect course-embedded assessment data for all outcomes that measure business-specific knowledge and skills. All graduates also took the ETS Major Field Test in Fall 2007. The assessment results are continually evaluated by the Assessment Committee of the School, and faculty in the appropriate areas.