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For one business school, a successful approach to assessment is driven by two fundamental questions: What can we discover about student learning? What should we do about it? BY TRICIA BISOUX DAVI D AR KY/G LOW I MAG ES T he navigational menus on most business school websites feature links related to areas such as "Admissions," "Programs," or "Research." But the College of Business Administration (CBA) at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse adds a less expected heading to its navigational lineup: "Assurance of Learning." The link leads visitors to the college's learning goals for its undergraduate and MBA programs, its annual assessment reports, descriptions of its rubrics, and resources on best practices in assessment and assurance of learning (AoL). The school presents this information on its website at www. uwlax.edu/ba/AOL/aol.htm. "We make this information available for our stakeholders to see," says Betsy Knowles, a senior lecturer in the economics department and coordinator of the school's assessment task force. "This is a way we can let students, faculty, and employers know: These are the learning outcomes that matter to us." Such transparency is just one component of the CBA's comprehensive approach to AoL, which has become an integral part of the school's educational culture. "Everything we do is guided by two questions," says Knowles. "What can we discover about student learning? And what should we do about it?" In fact, the efforts of CBA's faculty to impact student learning recently garnered national attention. The college was one of four schools to receive the 2013 Council for Higher Education Accreditation's (CHEA) Award for Outstanding Institutional Practice in Student Learning Outcomes—and only the second business school ever to receive the recognition. (In 2008, Seton Hall University's Stillman School of Business in South Orange, New Jersey, received the honor.) The story of how the CBA helped its faculty get excited about measuring and enhancing their students' learning could serve as a blueprint for other schools that seek to ramp up their own AoL efforts. It's one that the college is eager to tell. Energy and Expertise CHEA's recognition is a culmination of a process that began in 2009, just after the CBA had spent two semesters revising its undergraduate student learning goals and rethinking its general approach to AoL. "We recognized that we needed to develop a structure and process that emphasized faculty participation—what you might call a culture," says Knowles. "We wanted a process that was more sustainable over time." Forming an assurance of learning task force was a critical first step, says Bruce May, dean and professor of management at the CBA. "We handpicked a team of junior and senior faculty and instructors who were well-respected, could work together, and had the energy and expertise to play key roles in assessment activities," he says. The college chose individuals who had served on the undergraduate and graduate curriculum committees to create synergy between curriculum development and assessment activities. The second step was to create a system where conversations about assessment occurred frequently and naturally throughout the college, says Knowles. To that end, the task force asked professors from each department to volunteer as core course coordinators to work directly with the task force to link learning goals and effect curricular change. They also act as liaisons between the task force and departments, and they arrange meetings with their department's faculty to discuss how they should respond to assessment results. A third step was to invite stakeholders from across the college to participate in the assessment process. Today, students and representatives from companies that employ the school's graduates meet with task force members each semester and attend the annual faculty retreat. "The structure of our task force provides channels of instant communication throughout the college," says Knowles. Strong Support Systems When the college first started to implement its assessment plan, its task force let faculty know about the school's renewed emphasis on assessment at every committee or faculty meeting. "We talked about BizEd July/August 2013 41