Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/57338
"We don't need to assess a huge number of students; assessing a representative to inspire new approaches in the classroom, the data they gather will have no true purpose. "Schools have to protect faculty as they learn new ways to teach," says Eder. "While faculty are learning new pedagogies, they won't be submit- ting grant proposals or writing research papers. Business schools need to adopt new systems that reward faculty for more than their research." Too Little, Too Late? Even with all their efforts so far, business schools in the U.S. may still face a bigger challenge than convincing faculty of the benefits of assessment, says Eder. "Higher education has had 20 years to get this right, and most insti- tutions haven't," he says. "Now, the federal government is threatening to intervene." If that happens, business schools may have to work hard to convince the federal government that their assessment efforts are working. Already two major groups are advocating measures that could substantially influence assessment in public under- graduate education. In November, the National Associa- tion of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities together approved the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) initiative. Under the VSA, leaders from more than 70 four- year public institutions of higher education set standards for assur- ance of learning, creating a data- reporting template that could become a starting point for fed- eral oversight. AACSB adopted its new stan- dards in 2003; the release of the Spellings Report in 2006 only increased the pressure on colleges and universities to set standards when it called for an overhaul of U.S. higher education. Some fear that the next step may be an act of Congress to make assessment mandatory for public higher education institutions. Martell, however, believes that business schools still con- trol their own destiny—if they act now. "The Spellings Report frightened a lot of people, because it called for some type of standardized assessment. That, of course, wasn't welcomed because different schools have such different missions," she says. "It's important that organizations like AACSB educate Congress on the professional requirements that are already 28 BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2008 Assessment at by Mark Fenton-O'Creevy to the U.K.'s Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), which requires us to set and publish learning outcomes for each course and program. Second, our business program is delivered exclusively via distance learning formats, including the Internet, telephone, print, multimedia, local face-to-face tutorials, and residential study. Even with so many points of contact and a 1:16 tutor- to-student ratio, our students are less visible to faculty than they would be at a campus-based institution. Stu- dents, who study in course cohorts of up to 1,500, are not on campus and cannot drop in to see a tutor face- to-face. As a university in the U.K., we must answer to the T QAA. As an accredited business program, we must meet the standards of the AACSB and other accrediting bod- ies. But we must also maintain close relationships with, and ensure quality learning experiences for, all of our students—no matter how or when they connect to our programs. We must create robust, reliable assessment methods that work on a large scale, via multiple channels, across multiple student cohorts. Our Assessment Environment In the U.K. system, external examiners from other uni- versities work with teams at our school to ensure that our programs meet QAA requirements. In addition, program committees at OU Business School review all learning outcomes and evidence of student achievement to ensure they fulfill the requirements set by the QAA, AACSB, and other accrediting bodies. We carry out annual reviews with the help of external advisors, and our he Open University's OU Business School in Mil- ton Keynes, United Kingdom, has a unique vantage point on learning assessment. First, we are subject a Distance OU Business School's assessment plan must satisfy government mandates, meet accreditation standards, and lead to innovation in its distance learning program.