Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/57338
sample is enough. The point is to generate data we can use." —Kathryn Martell, Montclair State University programs are subject to a quality review by the university every six years. Since 2005, we also have been part of an annual national student satisfaction survey conducted by the government, which examines students' perceptions of teaching, learning, and student support. This level of oversight makes it essential that we adopt a central, user-friendly course management system. We are now in the process of integrating all of our online learning and student support systems into a single virtual learning environment based on Moodle, a free, open-source CMS system. Using Moodle, students can access coursework, use the library, submit assignments, handle paperwork, and interact with tutors and peers. The system keeps detailed records of every interaction we have with each student; we have protocols for information capture and data protection to supplement the relation- ships between students and tutors. By tracking the learning history of our students, we can identify how well they are achieving our learning objectives, and we can know when a student is struggling. If students are in trouble, we can intervene early to provide them the assistance they require to succeed. Enhancing Quality The QAA sets the following benchmark for MBA pro- grams: "Graduates will have been able to ground their new knowledge within the base of their professional experience. They will be able to reflect on and learn from that prior experience and thus be able to integrate new knowledge with past experience and apply it to new situations." In 2006, we introduced a new MBA capstone course to help students accomplish this objective. After our course team and external examiner reviewed the assessment data from the course, we realized that many students were hav- ing difficulty applying what they had learned in their pro- fessional environments. As one team member noted, many students were applying theory to their practice, but they were doing so "as one applies a sticking plaster, rather than using it to effectively generate new insights." In response, OU Business School established a working group that collected information from faculty and students and ran a series of workshops that examined approaches to improving students' "critical engagement." These work- shops have involved major figures in the field of learning, including Etienne Wenger, a leading California-based edu- cational theorist and researcher in "communities of prac- tice," and Yrjo Engestrom, director of the Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Our assessment system also has led us to refine our Pro- fessional Diploma in Management. The course includes online collaborative exercises designed to help first-year MBA students learn from other students about the prac- tice of management in organizations different from their own. By the end of the course, we expect students to be able to put what they've learned to practical use in their workplaces. However, a telephone survey of students in the course revealed that the workload in the course was higher than we had anticipated—so much so that our original learn- ing goals were being lost. Based on this survey, we rede- signed the course so that students had a more manage- able workload and more time to apply their skills. First, Assessment. Next, Innovation. The oversight of the QAA—and now of AACSB—has encouraged us to take a more thoughtful approach to designing our students' distance learning experiences and pay more explicit attention to external stakeholders. The danger, however, is that such audits of academic quality can become bureaucratic. Our concern is not just that the process absorbs resources, but that it can put a brake on innovation. To this end, the business school has established a Teaching Innovation Group to support development in teaching, learning, and assessment. We also partner with the Centre for Practice-Based Professional Learn- ing, one of four centers for excellence in teaching and learning at OU. Other support comes from the Institute for Educational Technology and the Knowledge Media Institute. These centers evaluate learning, support inno- vation, and develop technologies to enhance students' experiences. Although AACSB's new AoL standards aligned well with our established assessment systems, they've also served as a useful reminder. They encourage us to use these systems in meaningful ways that lead to learning, program improve- ment, and a better student experience. Mark Fenton-O'Creevy is the associate dean of programs and curriculum and professor of organizational behavior at Open University's Business School in the United Kingdom. BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2008 29