Development of Assessment Tools to Satisfy AACSB Assurance of Learning Requirements

"Assessment enables educators to examine whether the curriculum makes sense in its entirety and whether students, as a result of all their experiences, have the knowledge, skills, and values that graduates should possess." Palomba and Banta, Assessment Essentials, 1999, p. 7

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) requires that business schools specify their learning objectives and measure how well they are meeting these objectives. If the school is falling short in meeting its objectives, then it needs to adjust its curriculum to better meet the goals.

This new thrust heralds a landmark change in how business schools are to conduct themselves. Historically, the focus has been on the inputs to the education. That is, educators have been concerned with designing and offering courses to provide the necessary skills to be successful in business. Now, the focus has been expanded to include the outputs of education. We are now tasked with assessing how well we are able to develop the skills to be successful in business.

All of this requires that we change our mindset. Historically, we tested to determine if our students met the learning objectives. If they did not, then it was their fault.

What is different today? We still must test to determine if the students meet the learning objectives. However, if the students do not meet the learning objectives, then it is our fault.

Here is the process that we must use in designing any curriculum:

Step 1: Define the learning objectives
Step 2: Design the courses and curricula to achieve the learning objectives
Step 3: Assess how well the learning objectives are being met
Step 4: Adjust either the learning objectives or learning methods to better meet the objectives

For any educational tool, we are concerned with the following issues:

Assessing the method - Did this tool provide the desired learning? How good is the method?
Assessing the curriculum - Can the tool be used to tell you something about the broader curriculum? How good is the curriculum?
Skillful adjustment by the educator– Can you use the knowledge gained in an assessment to dynamically adjust the learning process, elevating the learning outcome?
Skillful adjustment by the student – Can you use the assessment to provide meaningful feedback to students so that they can adjust their efforts to master the subject matter?

Business simulations represent an important opportunity to contribute to the learning objectives of any business curriculum. But, like any pedagogical tool, they must also stand the test of how well they meet the learning objectives of the school.

For the past year, we have undertaken an effort to develop a number of assessment tools designed to evaluate business simulations and their contributions to the business curriculum. We have also tried to develop tools that can help both faculty and students to enhance the educational outcomes.

AACSB has stated that team based assessments are useful for overall curriculum outcomes. However, they are not sufficient for assessing individual student outcomes. Therefore, we have worked to create separate tools for both the team and the individual. In particular, we are developing or have developed the following tools:

Team Assessment

- Rubric to evaluate the Business Plan that teams present to outside investors midway through the exercise
- Rubric to evaluate the Tactical and Financial Plans that underlie the Business Plan
- Rubric to evaluate the Report to the Board of Directors that teams present to the outside investors at the end of the exercise
- Cumulative Balanced Scorecard to evaluate a team’s overall performance and individual achievements within each business function

Individual Student Assessment

- Rubric to evaluate each student’s business acumen as evidenced during weekly Executive Briefings with the instructor
- Rubric for taking ownership of two performance criteria within the Balanced Scorecard
- Online Peer Evaluation to evaluate each student’s teamwork and interpersonal skills
- Online Leadership Evaluation to provide feedback to the student regarding his/her leadership traits and behaviors that were exhibited during the exercise
- Online assessment to evaluate each student’s 1) integrative understanding of business, 2) understanding and use of the tools of management, and 3) ability to align the firm’s strategy and tactics to market conditions

During the fall semester, we tested most of these assessment tools in a simulation-based course at the University of Tennessee. We worked with eight Business Coaches who each managed two sections (two simulation exercises), representing nearly 400 students in 80 teams and 16 separate simulations. We have been refining the tools based upon this experience. We will apply them a second time during the spring semester to an equally large sample of students. We are also recruiting faculty at other schools to test the tools within their curricula. By the end of the spring semester, we should have a comprehensive set of assessment tools to recommend to educators and institutions that use Marketplace simulations as part of their curricula.

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