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58 BizEd MAY | JUNE 2015 FOUR GOALS, ONE MISSION The Byrd School enrolls about 275 BBA students and 100 MBA students. Our mission is reflected in the learning goals we've set for students in both programs, in four primary areas: decision making, ethics, leadership, and global perspec- tive. Under each learning goal, we have organized a range of learning objectives around the hierarchy set out in Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objec- tives: The Classification of Educational Goals—known as Bloom's Taxonomy. As Bloom suggests, we time our learning objectives so that students progress through the phases of "knowing," "feel- ing," and "doing " as they advance in their programs. The highest-level learning objective for BBAs is the lowest-level learning objective for MBAs. When we first adopted an assurance of learning plan eight years ago, we embedded just two multidisciplinary cases—one for the BBA and one for the MBA—in only a few core courses. How- ever, a few years ago, our Curriculum and Assessment Committee (C&AC) discov- ered three problems with that approach during its formal review. First, students and faculty were fatigued by the use of just two cases. Second, because assess- ment activities were included in so few core courses, few faculty members fully understood the process. Finally, we were measuring the same learning objectives in di™erent courses—in some cases, we were making as many as eight assessments of a single objective. As a result, we found that students often met a learn- ing objective in one discipline but could not satisfy the same learning objective in another. So, even though we were gathering a great deal of data, it was dišcult to interpret whether learning objec- tives were achieved. At that point, we made several changes. First, with input from the C&AC and faculty in each discipline, we adopted six new cases: three for the BBA and three for the MBA. One case is used in both programs, but not in the same dis- ciplines or to assess the same objectives. Second, we made sure that each learning objective is assessed in only one course, with no more than three learning objectives measured in one course. In this way, we can unambiguously identify whether an objective has been achieved. And, third, we expanded the reach of the assessment process to encompass eight undergraduate and ten graduate core courses (see the table on page 59). COORDINATING THE PROCESS Faculty from each discipline determine what methods they will use to assess their assigned learning objectives. Once selected, that method of assessment is fixed for all sections of the course, regardless of who teaches it. For instance, we assess MBA stu- dents' ethical mindsets via a final exam question in our course on accounting for decision making. The question asks them to evaluate the consequences of di™erent ethical dilemmas and select the best courses of action. At the BBA and MBA levels, the leadership learn- ing objective is assessed via individual leadership plans, which might include homework assignments, exam ques- tions, or an essay. To measure our MBA students' global mindsets, we include a case-based essay question in our capstone course in business policy. Students examine the case and describe how the company's vision, competition, supply chain, and other elements a™ect global operations. After administering assessments, instructors complete standardized reports, in which they outline and ana- lyze the results and recommend future improvements. At semester's end, the C&AC reviews the reports and posts them to a Blackboard page available to all faculty and sta™, who use the data to determine whether we need to make changes in our teaching or assessments. For instance, last year, we were sur- prised when several students in our cap- stone course in business policy tackled the case and essay question from ethical, rather than global, perspectives! In the future, the instructor will emphasize the question's objective more clearly during discussions about the final exam. ADDED ADVANTAGES We've found that a mission-based approach to assurance of learning has important advantages over relying on standardized tests. It helps us ensure that our mission drives our curric- ulum, evaluation, and improvement processes, which in turn helps us fulfill AACSB's Standard 8. It keeps our in- structors, students, partners, and other stakeholders focused on our mission. It also promotes the use of cross-dis- ciplinary cases and integrates learning across the curriculum. Students see that core courses do not stand alone, but provide di™erent ways to evaluate business problems. To strengthen our program's con- nection to practice, we plan to embed assessment questions related to pro- fessional certifications in appropriate courses. These could include practice exam questions from certifying bodies such as the Society of Human Resource Management and Project Management Institute. We want to know that our stu- dents can pass certification exams—and that what we teach is consistent with real-world practice. Mission-based assurance of learning helps us ensure that our mission drives our curriculum, evaluation, and improvement processes.