BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT ASSESSMENT PLAN
(FOR ALL MAJORS IN THE DEPARTMENT)  

Links to measures:
    Copies of measures can be obtained by contacting the Business Administration Department or
    the Assessment Coordinator.

DESIRED STUDENT OUTCOMES

Students who graduate from Moorhead State University with a major from the Business Administration Department should be able to:

• Exhibit basic knowledge of the principles and processes of business.
• Communicate effectively, both in writing and orally.
• Integrate basic concepts between courses within their major and across disciplines.
• Work together effectively in teams or project groups.
• Utilize the tools and technologies appropriate to their discipline.
• Understand the global and culturally diverse nature of business.

PROPOSED ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES

• We would like to administer the ETS Exam for Business during Spring Semester
• 1998. Students in Business 498, Business Policy will take the exam in class. The exam will be administered by the classroom instructor. The exam is not required for graduation, but all students will be expected to take the exam. The only exception to this will be if a student is missing during the class period the test is administered. This is a direct measure of student outcomes that includes sections that would allow us to assess learning in all of our majors (Finance, Management, Marketing, and International Business) as well as the Business Core. Accounting majors will also be included in this assessment. The cost for the exam will be paid out of departmental (Business Administration and Accounting) budgets.
•  An assessment survey of graduating seniors will be administered in our capstone course, Business 498, Business Policy. The survey will contain questions relating to the desired student outcomes. A separate survey will be developed for each major and will include sections on 1) student support resources, such as advising, curriculum faculty member availability, student clubs; 2) teaching-learning tools, such as lecture, case analysis, team work, assignments, exams; 3) skill development, such as oral communication, written, problem-solving, research, business leadership, diversity, ethics, computers; and 4) knowledge acquisition, which will include items on specific areas of knowledge we expect each major to acquire through their major courses (this is the section that will be different for each of the majors). We do not feel adding questions to the existing MSU Senior Survey will be sufficient unless their is a way to require all students to submit the complete survey. By administering this in the capstone course, we insure almost 100% response. An example of a survey we are looking at is attached.
• NOTE: We will send a copy of the senior survey when it is completed..  An intern survey/questionnaire will be developed to determine how well our students are prepared for and perform at internships. Questions asked will be aimed at determining students' skills (communication, written, computer, etc.) and potential in the workplace. The internship in the Business Administration Department is not a requirement for any of the majors. We would hope to use this intern survey to develop an effective employer survey, which will give us more information on our graduates. As the following time line indicates, we plan to work on this survey next year.
• An assessment of a project in the Business Policy course will be developed to assess desired student outcomes. This will probably be in the form of a checklist completed by the instructor and/or other faculty members to determine if the student has achieved the objectives set forth for the course. Again, this is an assessment activity we will work on next year. At this point, we see this as being an independent evaluation of an assignment/ project students complete in the Business Policy course. The evaluators will be faculty (other than the instructor) and possibly business people from the local communities. In this way we can get feedback from current or potential employers about the quality of our students' work. We will submit a more detailed description of this activity after we have developed it next fall. We realize this is not that difficult. We decided that two assessment activities for this academic year is what we feel we can handle.

RELATIONSHIP OF ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES TO DESIRED OUTCOMES