Project Title:
College of Business Assessment Program
Project Director and Other Associated Faculty and Staff:
Mary Soroko, Information Director, St. Cloud State Univ., Contact: MPSoroko@stcloudstate.edu, Telephone: (320)308-5317
Brad Sleeper, College Assessment Director, St. Cloud State Univ., Contact BSleeper@stcloudstate.edu, Tel.: (320)308-4227
Project Design:
In response to its national accreditation and faculty interest, the College of Business at SCSU has undertaken a comprehensive college assessment program that will promote the delivery of education services, improve student preparedness for the workplace and document student achievement. This project will support this goal by (1) developing a training and orientation program and user manual to help faculty develop assessable learning goals and valid assessment activities. (2) provide 6 faculty stipends to assist faculty to participate in assessment training, develop assessable learning goals for core courses and measure student achievement of learning goals, (3) piloting use of eLumen achievement software for all core one courses in Spring 2005 and for all core courses in 2005-2006.
Project Evaluation and Outcomes:
The steps proposed for this evaluation project have been implemented including: (1) Pilot faculty were trained in June, 2004 on how to design valid course-embedded assessment activities, (2) a faculty resource manual was written to provide information on assessment (3) course embedded activities were created to assess student learning in measurable terms, and (4) eLumen assessment software was configured for courses and implemented in core 1 courses and data was reported 978 students were assessed. The results of the assessment data suggest that students are lacking in basic skills (writing and math skills) and need greater assistance in technical applications of what they have learned.
Lessons Learned, Dissemination and Sustainability
The college assessment committee identified several issues that need to be addressed: (1) need greater communication among faculty on criteria and rubrics, (2) need for understanding among faculty on how to use data, (3) need college-wide agreement on skill-based learning goals to be evaluated, (4) need agreement on level of student performance that is desired and number of students to be assessed. Faculty and college administrators have made recommendations to refine eLumen to improve aggregation of data and to expand reporting function.
